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A 

LETTER 



» \ 

\ TO 



THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE SPEAKER 
OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, 



THE CLAIMS 

OF THE 

BRITISH ROMAN CATHOLICS 

CONTAINING 

A CORRESPONDENCE 

BETWEEN 

POPE PIUS VII. 

AND 

THE LATE KING OF NAPLES. 



}FITH AN APPENDIX. 



^, a a A, 



a' 



«^ L O N D O N : ^^ ^ 

JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 

WDCCCXXVII. 






LONDON; 

printed by W. Ci^we?, 

Stamford Street. 



J 



CONTENTS. 



Page 

A Letter to the Right Honourable the Speaker of 
THE House of Commons 1 



APPENDIX. 

A. — Manifeste de I'Empereur Joseph 83 

B. — Answer of the Empress Maria Theresa to Pope Clement 

Xni 92 

C. — Despatch from Du Tillot to the Duke of Parma 93 

D, — Letters between Duke Ferdinand, of Parma, and Pope 

Clement XIV 103 

E. — Extrait des Registres du Parlement, 1768 124 

F. — Editde saMajest6 Imperial etRoyale Apostolique, pub- 
lie dans toutte la Lombardie Autrichienne, le Oct. 19, 
1768 135 

G. — Memoir upon the Papal Investure of the Kingdom of 

the Two Sicilies 138 



A 

LETTER, 



Sir, 

An intense interest has been excited 
throughout the country at the prospect of an 
early discussion, in the present session of Par- 
liament^ of the Catholic claims. It would seem 
that, upon a subject which has so constantly 
been brought before the public, and in the elu- 
cidation of which such transcend ant talents have 
been displayed, little would now remain to be 
said ; yet, from the nature of these claims, from 
the various shapes which, at every period of 
their reproduction, they assume, it is impossible 
to deny that fresh matter is constantly rising 
up, well worthy the serious consideration of the 
legislature, and deeply interesting to all re- 
flecting minds. 

It is under this impression that I have ven- 
tured to address to you the following pages, 
hoping that the details and reasoning contained 
in them may not be considered as unworthy 
your attention ; and that the letters of Pope Pius 

B 



2 

the Seventh, and the late king of Naples, which 
(having accidentally fallen into my hands) I have 
now produced^ may not be looked upon as un- 
interesting in the present state of the Catholic 
Question. 

When entering upon the consideration of this 
most important question, it is melancholy to 
reflect, even at the present advanced period of 
civilization, with how much asperity towards 
each other the different sects of Christians still 
uphold the doctrines by which they are divided. 
From the earliest heresies of the Ebionites and 
Gnostics, from the Novatian and Arian schism, 
to the present time, the charitable feeling which 
would dictate to every Christian the belief, that 
a merciful Creator could not attribute, as a crime, 
the conscientious interpretation of the Revela- 
tions he had vouchsafed to render to mankind, 
appears never to have been entertained. The 
professed Arian was formerly persecuted as an 
infidel, who dared to derogate from the attri- 
butes of his Saviour; while, at the present mo- 
ment, the Protestant and the Catholic, though in 
equal reverence of the inspired writings upon 
which their religions are founded, yet anathe- 
matize each other for the various interpretations 
of those passages, which each conscientiously 
believes he correctly understands. It is in vain 
to reason upon these divisions, which distract 



mankind. The prejudices of habit^ the jea- 
lousies and vanities of men, yield not to the 
force of argument, or to the voice of truth ; and 
where a feeling of religious charity would seek 
to heal the discord which has oppressed the 
world, the interests of man step in to arrest its 
influence. 

Thus, in the support of that mighty fabric, 
which, in the silence of the dark ages, grew 
to a commanding height, and, as the church of 
Christ, assumed unbounded power over the civil 
and religious government of the world, a host 
of followers rise up at every step, defending 
its interests, protecting its supremacy, and, un- 
der the veil of sanctity, dealing forth damnation 
upon those, who, by resisting their construction of 
Holy Writ, would shake them from an authority 
which has never been attained by the greatest 
despots who have reigned over the nations of the 
earth *. Looking fairly at the pretensions of the 
Roman Pontiff and the Catholic Church, con- 
ceding to them all they may claim from the basis 
upon which their power is assumed, it is impos- 
sible to deny that, according to their mode of 
interpreting it, no human authority can be set in 
competition with them. The words of the apostle 

'^* The authority accruing to the priesthood from the con- 
fessional alone, is superior to any which has ever been 
established over mankind. 

b2 



St. Matthew, in which the declaration of Our 
Saviour's will is delivered to us, are the follow- 
ing (ch. xvi. V. 18, 19) : " Thou art Peter, and 
" upon this rock I will build my church, and the 
" gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And 
"I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom 
" of heaven ; and whatsoever thou shalt bind on 
" earth, shall be bound in heaven, and what- 
" soever thou shalt loose on earth, shall be loosed 
'' in heaven." If these words are correctly inter- 
preted as conveying to us^ that to Peter^ and to 
his successors in the See of Rome, without 
limitation as to time, Our Saviour granted the 
privilege of representing him on earth ; that he 
appointed him and them the head of all the mem- 
bers of his church ; that he assured to them an 
infallibility of judgment, and required from all 
Christians an equal faith in their decisions as if 
they proceeded from himself, then it is a sacri- 
lege to compare any authority on earth to that 
which is thus conceded *. 

The prostration of the sovereigns of the world 

* It is difficult to come to such a conclusion as this, as 
to the real intention of Our Saviour : first, because the 
words used do not appear to justify it, particularly since the 
natural inference to be drawn from them is, that Our Sa- 
viour referred to the faith which St. Peter had testified, 
saying, " Thou art the Christ the Son of the living God." 
It was upon the rock of this faith that Our Saviour de- 



before the Holy Person in whom this amazing 
privilege resides, is not only an homage due to 

clared he would build his church (a) ; next, because so 
important a grant of power is mentioned only by St. Mat- 
thew, the rest of the apostles being silent upon this subject ; 
and lastly, because the general doctrine contained in that 
same gospel, as in all the others, is at variance with any 
such pretension ; and because there is not the slightest evi- 
dence that the apostles, either before or after the death of 
Our Saviour, ever in any way acknowledged it. In this 
gospel of St. Matthew (6), chap. xx. ver. 26, it is stated, 
" Whosoever will be great amongst you, let him be your 
" minister ; and whosoever will be chief amongst you, let 
" him be your servant." Chap, xxiii. ver. 8 : " But be not 
" called Rabbi, for one is your master, e\en Christ, and 
" all of ye are brethren." St. Mark, chap. ix. ver. 34 : " But 
" they held their peace ; for by the way they had disputed 
" among themselves who should be the greatest. And he 
" sat down and called the twelve, and saith unto them, If 
" any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, 
*' and servant of all." Chap. x. ver. 42 : But " Jesus called 

(a) This doctrine is maintained by the Council of Ephesus, Cone, 
vol. iii. p. 135 ; by St. Ambrose in his work, De Incor. chap. 5 : 
by St. Cyril of Alexandria, Dial. 4. de Trin. ; by St. Aug'ustin 
in his Serm. 270, in Die Pent. & 76 de Verb. Dom. n. 2, &c. &c. 

(5) According- to the Cathohc liistory of the Popes, St. Mark was 
commissioned by St. Peter, while at Rome, to write his Gospel. It 
is therefore a very singular circumstance that he should not men- 
tion those words of Our Saviour, by which his patron is supposed to 
be nominated as the head of the Christian church. Eusebius states 
that the Gospel of St. Mark was at first surreptitiously taken from 
the preaching- of St. Peter, but the apostle having- discovered it, 
he sanctioned it. If this was the case, there could not be a strong-er 
proof that St. Peter himself did not teach that he was the rock on 
which the church of Christ was built, since in St. Mark's Gospel 
these words are never mentioned. 



him, but if any greater could be invented^ it still 
would be inferior to what, in justice, should be 

" them to him and saith unto them, Ye know that they 
'' which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles, exercise 
** lordship over them; and their great ones exercise au- 
" thority upon them. But so shall it not he among you ; but 
" whosoever will be great among you shall be your minis- 
" ter ; and whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be 
" the servant of all." St. Luke, chap. xxii. ver. 24 : *' And 
" there was also a strife among them, which of them should 
" be accounted the greatest. And he said unto them, The 
*' kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them ; and 
" they that exercise authority upon them, are called bene- 
*' factors. But ye shall not be so ; but he that is greatest 
" among you, let him be as the younger ; and he that is 
" chief, as he that doth serve." St. John, chap. xvii. ver. 11 : 
" And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the 
" world, and I come to thee ; Holy Father, keep through 
'* thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they 
*' may be one, as we are. And for their sakes I sanctify 
" myself, that they also might be sanctified through the 
** truth. That they all may be one, as thou. Father, art in 
" me and I in thee, that they also may be one in us : that 
" the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And 
*' the glory which thou gavest me I have given them ; that 
" they may be one, even as we are." 

The whole of these passages are directly opposed to the 
supposition, that Our Saviour intended that any one of the 
apostles should be considered as superior to the rest, or 
that there should be any other unity in his church, but in 
himself and with the Father. In the first council which 
was held in the Christian church at Jerusalem, as recorded 
in the 15th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, the opi- 



required. To what a height is such a person 
raised above us ! to what adoration is he not en- 
titled ! In the meekness and humility^ however, 

nion, which was declared by St. Peter, came not as from 
the infallible representative of Our Saviour ; on the con- 
trary, the doctrine, which was sent forth from that council 
as adopted by the apostles, the elders, and the whole 
church, was proposed by the apostle James, and was distinct 
from that which had been recommended by St. Peter ; and 
in the letters which were written to the brethren which are 
of the Gentiles in Antioch, in Syria, and in Cilicia, and 
which conveyed to them the decisions of the council, no 
mention is made of St. Peter, nor is there the slightest 
evidence that he there exercised any sort of spiritual 
superiority. 

In the 21st chapter of St. John, verse 15, the injunction 
to St. Peter, " feed my flock," cannot be tortured into a 
belief, that he alone was to feed that flock ; for, as it is 
stated by St. Paul, in his second Epistle to the Galatians, — 
" The preaching the gospel of the uncircumcision was con- 
*' fided to me, and that of the circumcision to St. Peter." 
St. Paul, therefore, had no hesitation in withstanding 
St. Peter to his face in a doctrine on which he conceived he 
was wrong. 

There followed from this no schism of the church ; no 
bull of excommunication from St. Peter ; no cessation of 
that unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, which was 
never interrupted amongst the apostles, because (like the 
various churches of Christians of the present day) they 
had in truth one Lord, one faith, and one baptism. But 
that one Lord was not Peter, but Christ ; that one faith 
was in the revelations of Our Saviour j that one baptism the 
one he had ordained. 



8 

of the successors of St. Peter, they have at dif- 
ferent times acknowledged a certain assent, on 
the part of the members of the Catholic Churchy 
to be necessary to establish the infallibility of 
their decisions ; yet as this is in no way made 
mention of in the words of the Apostle, it must 
rather be considered as a concession, than a right 
inherent in the Church ; and although it has 
been asserted and contested in many of the va- 
rious conflicts which have arisen between the 
Popes and the Catholic Clergy, yet it appears 
impossible fairly to establish against the Pope 
any claim of such a nature. In this sense, the 
Roman Catholic is justly called upon in his 
creed to promise and swear true obedience to 
the Roman Bishop, the successor of St. Peter, 
the Prince of the Apostles, and Vicar of Jesus 
Christ ; and although he is called upon in the 
same document to obey the decisions of certain 
councils, which, under the authority of the Popes^ 
have at various times been held, and to assent 
to the dogmas of his religion which have been 
established by them, yet his direct and personal 
obedience is only required, as if due to the 
Vicar of our Saviour on earth. It is true, that 
considerable bodies of Catholics, alarmed at the 
preposterous power thus assumed upon these 
premises by the Popes, have resisted it, and 
have cited as the rule of their faith, the Canon 



9 

of the 10th Session of the Council of Florence, 
which defined, that *' full power was delegated 
" to the Bishop of Rome, in the person of 
*' St. Peter, to feed, regulate, and govern the 
" Universal Church, as expressed in the general 
*' Councils." But it must not be forgotten, that 
to render these canons lawful, the sanction of 
the Pope is necessary ; that it is no way compul- 
sory upon him; and, therefore, that their ex- 
istence as the infallible regulations of the 
Church_, is dependent on his judgment and de- 
cision. But will it be asserted, that when a ge- 
neral council is not assembled, there is no in- 
fallible authority governing the Church? If so, 
this is a Catholic doctrine totally at variance 
with that which is professed in the Vatican ; 
and, although the want of orthodoxy may be 
allowed to go unpunished, in consideration of 
the friendly views in which these sentiments are 
set forth ; although, like the rights of the Gal- 
lican and other churches, they may be tolerated 
from necessity, yet these principles will not the 
less have incurred the secret condemnation of 
that court. That they may not be remarked 
upon, will be owing to the wisdom with which 
the Court of Rome is guided at the present mo- 
ment. It is not now a time to enter upon dis- 
cussions on the extent of its authority; while 
several thousand Italian, Spanish, and Portu- 



10 

guese priests are quietl}^ instructing the vast 
majority of the people committed to their charge 
from their pulpits, in their general converse with 
them, or at the confessional, that the Holy Father, 
the Vicar of Christ, is the infallible head and re- 
gulator of the Church, and of every thing apper- 
taining thereto on earth ; that they are to prostrate 
themselves before him ; they are to value his 
blessing as if delivered to them by the divinity 
he represents ; they are to look to him as the in- 
fallible judge of the penance required from them 
in this v^orld, to save them from punishment in 
the next ; that to him they may in confidence ap- 
ply for the release of the souls of their departed 
relations and friends, from the torments of pur- 
gatory ; that the miracles by which their faith is 
to be confirmed, the canonization of the saints 
they are to adore, are declared by his infallible 
authority. While these doctrines are promul- 
gated throughout the greatest part of the Catholic 
world, the Papal See will bear with resignation 
those well-meant aberrations which may be dis- 
seminated in distant countries, and the cogni- 
zance of which is withheld from its more docile 
followers. Of this there can be no question ; 
that there is no principle so clearly set forth in 
the Transalpine Roman Catholic Church, as the 
infallibility of the Pope ; it is a principle from 
which the See of Rome has never receded, and 



11 

upon which it has never in any instance yielded 
one jot of its pretensions^. 

With these principles distinctly laid down as 

* Having stated this to be the doctrine of the Vatican, it 
is necessary to remark that the authority of the greater 
number of the fathers of the church is totally against it. 

Pope Nicholas III., in 6th Decret., Book I. de Elect, c. 17, 
says, " that the church is built on the apostles and preachers 
*' of the gospel, who are its firm foundation, and are tbem- 
" selves established on the firm foundation of our Saviour." 
St. Gregory in his fifth book, Ep. 18, to John, Bishop of 
Constantinople, says, " Peter the first of the apostles and 
*' member of the universal church, Paul, Andrew, John, 
*' what were they but the chiefs of particular churches, and 
" yet they were all members under the one oSly head. And 
" to say every thing in a few words, the saints before the 
*' law, the saints under the law, and the saints under the 
" grace, formed altogether the body of the Lord, and are all 
*' members of the church, and no one amongst them took 
*' upon himself the title of Universal. The Apostle Paiil, 
" having learnt that some person said, I am the disciple of 
*' Paul, and another of Apollos, and another of Cephas, had 
" a horror of this laceration of the body of the Lord, by 
*' which its members united themselves in a certain degree 
" to other chiefs. And he called out, saying ; Paul, has he 
" been crucified for you? or have you been baptized in the 
" name of Paul ? 

" If, therefore, (continues St. Gregory,) the Apostle, in 
" opposing himself to these partialities, prevented the mem- 
" bers of the body of the Lord from submitting themselves 
" to other chiefs than Jesus Christ, although they were 
" Apostles, what would you answer on the day of judg- 
" ment to Jesus Christ, the -head of the universal church, 






12 

the doctrines of the Holy See, it is necessary to 
inquire in what way the followers of its faith can 

" you, who, in taking the title of universal bishop, seek to 
" render subservient to you all its members V 

The same doctrine is held by Origen in Mat. vol. 12, 
n. xi. ; TertuUian in 1. 4. cont. Marc. n. 39 ; St. Hilary in 
Psalm 67, n. 16 ; St. Jerome, 1. 1. adv. Jov. ; and in c. 2, and 
62 Isaiae ; St. Cyril, in 1. 4. Isaise. Orat. 2 ; and Cardinal 
Cuza, inhis 2nd book, chap. 13, con. Cath. says, " we know 
" that Peter has not received more power from Jesus Christ 
" than the other Apostles ; for nothing was said to Peter, 
" which was not said to the others ; for as it was said to 
" Peter, all you shall hind^ &c., it has been said to the 
" others, all you shall bind, &c., and if it has been said to 
" Peter, you are Peter, and upon this rock, &c., we under- 
*' stand by this rock, Jesus Christ, whom Peter had con- 
" fessed." 

"With regard to the words of our Saviour addressed to 
Peter, "I will give to you the keys, &c.," it is affirmed by the 
following fathers, that this was a faculty, not given to Peter 
alone, but to all the Apostles. 

St. Cyprian in his work de Unit. Eccl. 

Origen in Mat. vol. 12. n. 11. 

St. Hilary, de Trin., Book 6. n. S3. 

St. Jerome, in his letter against Jovian. 

St. Ambrose, in Parag. 38. 

St. Gaudentius, Orat. 16, in Die suse Ordinationis. 

St. Augustin, in Serm. 149, de Verbis. Act. 10, and in 
Serm. 295, in Nat. Apostol. Petri et Pauli. 

Theophylactus, in his work upon Mat. xvi. 

Bede upon Mat. xvi. 

St. Jerome, in his letter 101, ad Evangelicum, alias 85 ad 
Evagrium, says, " it must not be believed that the church of 



m 

amalgamate in affairs of state with those of a 
different religion. To arrive at any clear under- 
standing upon this part of the subject, it is of 
the first importance to inquire what is the extent 
of temporal authority which has either been laid 
claim to by the successors in the chair of St. 
Peter, or which the evidence of history and the 
consent of the church have authorized it to as- 
sume? 

However involved in mystery is the tradition 
which has been handed down concerning the 
election and authority of the early bishops or 
popes of Rome, however futile is the search 
even after any satisfactory evidence, as to the 
actual presence in that city of St. Peter himself*, 

" Rome is different from those of the rest of the universe. 
" In whatever place there is a bishop, let his diocese be in 
" Rome or Eugubio, at Constantinople or Reggio, in Alex- 
*' andria or Thanis, it is of the same consideration, it has 
" the same priesthood. The power which is given by riches 
" does not exalt a bishop above the rest, and the humility 
*' which accompanies poverty does not render him inferior 
" to his colleagues. The bishops are all equally the suc- 
" cessors of the Apostles ! ! " 

"* The first authentic shape in which the traditional ac- 
count of the presence of St. Peter at Rome is cited, is by 
St. Irenseus and Tertullian, who wrote about the year 200, 
and who merely state the report of St. Peter's having been 
in that city. St. Irenaeus, in his Book against heretics, 
chap, iii., relates that the church of Rome was founded by 
the Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul ; but he also states that 



14 

yet it is beyond all doubt tliat^ during the first 

when the blessed Apostles had founded and built the church, 
they intrusted the office of bishop to Linus. This would 
prove that the same conduct was adopted by one or both 
the, Apostles in Rome, as in all other cities; they established 
no bishopric for themselves, but committed the duties of that 
station to others, to whom, as to their successors, it has never 
been pretended that they imparted their apostolic powers. 

Linus was succeeded by Anacletus, and after him by Cle- 
ment, of whom an epistle to the Corinthians is still, extant. 
It would be natural that, if he considered himself as the 
successor of St. Peter, he would make some mention of this 
circumstance ; but, on the contrary, he does not pretend to 
any power derived from that Apostle, and in the mention 
he makes of his martyrdom does not even state where it 
took place (a). And TertuUian, in his history De Proscrip- 
tione, chapter S6th, refers only to the martyrdom of St. 
Peter and St. Paul in that city, coupling with it the rela- 
tion of the tortures attempted to be inflicted there upon the 
well-beloved " Apostle, who was plunged into boiling oil, 
" from which he came out without hurt, and was sent to a 
" desert island." The next author who mentions this subject, 
is Eusebius, in the year 313, who says, in Book the 2nd, 
chapter 13th and 14th, that " Simon Magus having been 
" driven from Judea by St. Peter, came to Rome ; but by the 
" clemency of divine Providence, Peter, who, by the great- 
" ness of his faith and the merits of his virtue^ was Prince 
" of the Apostles, was immediately, in the time of Claudius, 

(«) It is sing-ular, that Eusebius, when stating* in book iii.:^ 
chapter 5, that Linus and Clement were left in charg-e of the 
Church of Rome, should remark that Paul had declared those per- 
sons to be his companions and assistants, leading* one therefore to 
conclude, that he believed them to have been appointed by that 
Apostle, and not by St. Peter. 



u 

ages of Christianity, these bishops were the sub* 

*' brought to that city, to combat against the universal ruin 
*' of the human race." 

St. Jerome, in the year 373, in the Catalogue of ecclesi- 
astical writers, (No. 1, Vol. iv. part 2, page 101,) relates, 
that '' Simon Petrus, ad expugnandum Simonem Magum, 
** Roman pergit, ibique 25 annis Cathedrum sacerdotalem 
*' tenuit." And Paul Orosius, in the 5th century, book 7th 
of his history, chapter 6th, relates, that, in the beginning, 
of the reign of Claudius, Peter was at Rome. The whole 
of this testimony is nothing more than the relation of a 
tradition at the distance of from two to four hundred years, 
by persons who, although speaking of an event which was 
supposed to have taken place in the most polished city of the 
world, yet can produce no authority whatsoever for what 
they state, — no written document by which to verify their 
account. There is hardly a city in the southern provinces 
of Italy, which has not some traditional relation of the pre- 
sence of St. Peter ; all seem to have been alike desirous with 
Rome, to date their conversion to Christianity from this 
Apostle, Brindisi, Otranto, Taranto, Trani, Oria, Andria, 
Sepronto, Reggio, Naples, Capua, Terracina, Bari, Bene- 
vento and Sessa, all pretend to some tradition of this mark 
of the divine favour ; but all, equally with Rome, are unable 
to bring forward the slightest evidence in fa^^our of this hy* 
pothesis, a circumstance which would appear totally im- 
possible, if there was any foundation for it (a). 

The Catholics, however, bring forward another argument 
in favour of their pretensions ; they cite the authority of 
Grotius, who, being a Protestant, and writing in the seven- 
teenth century, states, that the ancients interpreted Babylon 
for Rome : they therefore assert, that in the fifth chapter of 

(a) Vide Giannone, Vol. I. 



16 
jects of the Roman Emperors ; that they continued 

St. Peter's first epistle, when he says, '* The Church that is 
*' at Babylon elected together with you, saluteth you," he 
meant Rome and not Babylon ; that this epistle therefore 
was written from Rome, the salutation of which Church 
he sends to the strangers scattered through Pontus, Galatia, 
Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. 

This mode of proof is somewhat singular, upon a subject 
of so much importance ; particularly since the natural infer- 
ence is, that St. Peter wrote from Babylon in Egypt, in 
which country he must have resided, as he is stated to have 
appointed St. Mark bishop of Alexandria ; but what is still 
more unaccountable is, that St. Paul, who came to Rome in 
the year 62 or 63, (that is, tov/ards the close of the asserted 
papacy of St. Peter, who is stated to have been in that 
city as early as 42,) should make no mention of him what- 
soever, and that when he is interrogated, regarding the 
faith he professed, by the Jews he called together, as stated 
22nd verse of the 28th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, 
" But we desire to hear of thee what thou thinkest ; for 
'' as concerning this sect, we know that everywhere it is 
spoken against," he should not have referred to St. Peter, 
who, according to the tradition of the Catholics, had esta- 
blished Christianity in that city twenty years before, and 
whom Paul ought to have looked upon as his spiritual di- 
rector, from whom alone, particularly in his own diocese of 
Rome, he ought to have received the directions by which 
to regulate his conduct. But the direct contrary is to be 
inferred from the language of St. Paul, who, in his epistle 
to the Christians residing in Rome, written before he went 
to them, states, in chap. i. ver. 11, " For I long to see you, 
" that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, to the end 
*' that you may be established :" and in chap. xv. ver. 16, 
where he reminds them that " he is the minister of Jesus 



17 

to remain such, till long after the transfer of the 
seat of empire to Constantinople ; that their elec- 

*' Christ to the Gentiles ;" and in ver. 20, that " he had | V- 
'* strived to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, | 
" lest he should build upon another man's foundation." 
How is all this to be reconciled with the idea that Peter 
had been at Rome before this was written ? What, indeed, 
had Peter to do there, since it it stated that his ministry- 
was in the gospel of the circumcision ; therefore with the 
Jews, and not the Gentiles ? whereas, Paul declares that his 
is with the uncircumcision; and (2 Cor. chap. xi. ver. 5,) that 
" he was not a whit behind the chiefest of the apostles.*' 

It is also worthy of remark, that St. Paul wrote six ? 
epistles from Rome, in none of which he even mentions ^ 
St. Peter ; and that St. Luke concludes his Acts of the 
AjDOStles by stating, that St. Paul resided at Rome two 
years, making no allusion whatsoever to the supposed re- 
sidence there of the representative of our Saviour. 

So far as to the first residence of St. Paul in Rome : an i 
account of his second visit to that city, in the year 66, is — -- 

given in his second epistle to Timothy, chap. iv. ver. 9 : "Do 
" thy diligence to come shortly to me. 10 For Damas has 
" forsaken me. 11 Only Luke is with me. 16 At my 
*' first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook- 
"me. 21 Do thy diligence to come before winter. Eu- 
*' bulus greeteth thee, and Pudens and Linus, and Claudia, 
" and all the brethren.'* 

The silence of St. Paul with regard to St. Peter on this | -^.,1 
occasion, which was the last year but one of his supposed 
pontificate, is still more remarkable than on the former oc- 
casion, for he here states the names of the persons who were 
at Rome ; and it would seem quite impossible he should 
omit the greatest of them all, if he had been there. 

C This 



is 

tidns, sometimes proceeding direct from the Em- 
perors, were always * subject to their approval ; 

This much ivS quite certain, that St. Peter's having been 
at Rome, is the most doubtful of all the important circum- 
stances which attended the establishment of Christianity ; a 
curious foundation for the superstructure which has been 
raised upon it, and for the damnation which has been pro- 
nounced upon all those who have ventured to disbelieve ot 
doubt it. 

* Upon the election of the Popes, it is curious to read 
the account given by Ammianus Marcellinus, of the scan- 
? dalous scenes which took place at the contested election in 
^' 366, between Damasus I. and Ursicinus, at which one hun- 
dred and thirty persons were the victims of the ambition of 
these pretenders to the sacred representation of Our Saviour 
on earth. This author describes the vast treasures which, 
from every part of Italy, were at that time sent as donations 
to the See of Rome ; and the devotion with which the Roman 
matrons deprived themselves of their jewels and ornaments 
to enrich the church. He affirms that the election of a pope 
cost the faithful sums which were more than regal. In 
looking through the account of the various modes in which 
the Popes conducted themselves at their elections with re- 
gard to the emperors, it appears that, in 418, after the death 
\ / of Zosimus, the clergy and people of Rome being divided, 
elected two Popes, Eulalius and Boniface. The prefect 
Symmachus wrote to the emperor Honorius for his orders 
on this occasion : the emperor desired that the two Popes 
should appear before him at Ravenna ; in the meantime he 
directed the Bishop of Spoletto to perform the service of 
Easter. 

Eulalius came to Rome at the head of his partisans, in 
disobedience to the order of the emperor, and caused consi- 



19 



that after their elections had been confirmed by 
the emperors, they were subject to their autho- 

derable disorders : he was driven out by the prefect, and in 
consequence was deposed by the command of the emperor ; 
and Boniface established in the chair of St. Peter. Eulalius 
was afterwards appointed to the bishopric of Nepi. In 532^ 
Pope John II. received with submission, and even, as is 
shown by his epistle to the Emperor Justinian, with praise 
and gratitude, the edict of King Athalaric, the successor of 
Theodoric, by which, in imitation of the conduct pursued 
on similar occasions by the emperors Leo and Anthemius, the 
election of the Popes was regulated. Athalaric sent this edict 
,to his prefect Salvouzio, with orders to notify it to the senate 
and people of Rome, and to have it engraven upon the front 
of the cathedral of St. Peter. In 579, Pope Pelagius II. 
sent to the Emperor Mauritius, to excuse himself for having 
occupied the chair of St. Peter without waiting for his appro- 
bation, Benedict II., in 684, declared, by consent of the 
Emperor Constantine II., that the election of the Pope should 
belong to the clergy and people of Rome, without waiting 
the imperial sanction, or that of his exarch. But the idea 
of any such independence was overthrown under Charlemagne 
and his successors, who confirmed the election of each Pope. 
Gregory IV., in 828, would not exercise the functions of the 
papacy, until his election had been confirmed by the Emperor. 
Leo VIII., in 963, issued a decree, by which he transferred 
to the Emperor Otho all the authority which the clergy and 
people of Rome had exercised in the election of the Popes. 
Gregory V., in 995, was elected by the Emperor Otho; and 
Gregory VL, in 1045, was displaced by the Emperor 
Henry III., who elected four successive Popes. Nicholas II., 
in 1059, declared that no election of a Pope was valid, unless 
made by the cardinals ; and Gregory XV., in 1623, established 
the form of election which is now observed, 

c 2 



20 

rity *, that they were summoned to the general 
councils which the emperors thought fit to as- 
semble ; and, until the schism occasioned by the 
doctrine of the Iconoclasts, that there is no evi- 
dence of their having pretended to any inde- 
pendent temporal authority. At the period of 
fthis heresy, during the reign of the Emperor 
Leo the Isaurian, and under the protection of 
/ the victorious Lombards in the battle of Ravenna, 
Pope Gregory II., in the year 727 (first having 
excommunicated the patriarch of Constantinople, 
and menaced the emperor), set up a claim of 
independence. He was supported in this as- 
sumption of authority by the great body of the 
people, who, looking to the images as the objects 
of their adoration, adhered to the Pope as the 
protector of all that was dear to them: they 
willingly transferred to him the obedience which 
hitherto they had rendered to the Emperor ; they 

* Till the end of the eighth century, the Popes were subject 
to the duke of Rome, who was dependent upon the exarch of 
Kavenna. A remarkable instance in proof of this is to be 
found in the conduct adopted towards Pope Martin I., in 647. 
This prelate was accused by the Emperor Constans of being 
in correspondence with his enemies, and of having refused to 
publish the imperial formulary. He was consequently ar- 
rested in Rome by Theodore Calliopa, an officer sent for that 
purpose by the emperor, and carried to Constantinople, where 
he was tried, and condemned to exile in the Phersonesus, 
where he died. 



21 

regarded him as their political chief, and sup- 
ported him in his rebellion against his sovereign. 

The inhabitants of the Pentapolis followed the 
example of the Romans ; and the Popes thus sup- 
ported, and being protected by the Lombards, 
assumed, for the first time, political independ- 
ence ; to this title alone were they indebted for 
their temporal authority. They did not at first 
openly assume it. 

Pope Gregory III. wrote to the Emperor in 
the year 732, " that the tenets of the Holy 
^' Church do not belong to the decision of em- 
"■ perors, but of popes, who are wont securely 
" to transmit them. It is for this reason that 
" priests, abstaining from state-affairs, are set 
^' over churches ; let, therefore, emperors like- 
'' wise abstain from ecclesiastical affairs, and 
*' take care of the concerns committed to them." 
This language^ however haughty, is not that of 
a temporal sovereign; but the Popes did not 
long delay the open assertion of more extensive 
authority. 

The emperors were too weak to punish their 
insubordination ; but, in escaping from the impe- 
rial jurisdiction, the successors of St. Peter found 
themselves menaced with the loss of their inde- 
pendence, from the new-established dominion 
of the Lombards. The history of the Popes 
Zachary, Stephen II., and Stephen III, attests 



22 



the fears they entertained on this subject from 
Luitprand, Astolphus, and Desiderius ; but turn- 
ing to Pepin and Charlemagne, they at first were 
enabled, through their means, and by force of 
arms^ to weaken, and at last to destroy the 
dreaded power of the Lombards, and by legiti- 
mating the usurpations of the French princes, 
to establish their own illegitimate authority. 
The disputes which continued for a series of 
years after this assumption of temporal power, 
the destruction of the Western Empire, which 
had been established under Charlemagne, and 
the succession of the Saxon princes to the impe- 
rial throne under Otho, in 962, prepared the 
way for a much more extensive assertion of 
authority by Gregory VIL, in the year 1073. 
During this time, the direct interference of the 
German emperors in the election of the Popes 
is a matter of historical notoriety : where their 
influence was not asserted in the choice of the 
Roman bishops, their sanction to the election 
was invariably required. 

The Emperor Henry IIL, after deposing the 
three Popes who disputed the chair of St. Peter 
in 1046, named, of his own authority*, Clement 
II. ; and having forced the clergy and people of 

* It is worthy of remark that, after the decisions of the 
second Council of Nice, in 786, in favour of the worship of 
images, the Emperor Charlemagne^ who had written against 



23 

Rome to surrender to him the usage they had 
maintained of recommending the Popes for the 
approbation of the Emperor, he appointed the 
succeeding Popes, Damasus II., Leo IX.*, and 
Victor II., without any interference whatever 
with his sovereign will. At the end of this 
period, in the Council of Lateran, under Ni- 
cholas II., the election of the Popes was regu- 
la-ted between the cardinals, the clergy, and the 
people of Rome; " saving always the honour 
" and respect due to the Emperor^ to whom the 
^' Apostolic See accorded the privilege of con- 
" curring in the election by his consent." 

This may be taken as the first step towards 
the establishment of the independence of the 
bishops of Rome: up to this period, notwith- 
standing the momentary assumption of supreme 
authority, which at different times they may 
have attempted, yet it was founded upon no law_, 
it was sanctioned by no canon of the Church f. 

these decisions, assembled a council at Frankfort, composed 
of above three hundred bishops, in which, in opposition to 
Pope Adrian, the Emperor's opinions were confirmed, and 
were declared the rule of the Catholic faith. "Where was the 
infallibility and supremacy of the Roman Church, when these 
things were permitted ? 

* After the Emperor Henry III. had named Leo pope, 
Hildebrand, afterwards Gregory VIL, persuaded him to 
receive his nomination from the clergy and people of Rome. 

t Up to the time of the Emperor Valentinian IIL, no other 



24 

If at one time, in the confusion of all legal 
authority, the Popes were elected by the repub- 
licans who had estabhshed their dominion in 
Rome ; if, at another, the nomination to the chair 
of St. Peter was shamefully abandoned to Theo- 
dora, to her daughter Marozia, or to the family 
of these persons, yet no claim of independence 
from the sovereign authority of the Emperor 
could be set up upon such unbecoming irregu- 
larities. But from the date of the canon just 
cited ; from the period of Gregory the Seventh's 
pontificate; from the grants of the Countess 
Matilda*; from the treaty of Worms, in 1122, 
between the Emperor Henry V. and the Pope 
Calistus II., by which the investitures of the 
Church were regulated, and the possession 

canons of the Church were known but those compiled by 
Stephen, Bishop of Ephesus. 

* The reported gift of the city of Rome by Constantine to 
Silvester I., and the grants of Pepin and Charlemagne, are 
not here mentioned, since the first is supported only by a do- 
cument which is now universally confessed to be a forgery, and 
the others appear never in reality to have conferred any domi- 
nion over the states to which they relate, but merely to have 
ceded their revenues — the supreme authority remaining in the 
French Princes. This is the inference to be drawn from the 
history of those times, for no instrument by which the dona- 
tion is made exists ; and only a very doubtful one, in a manu- 
script, dated in 1 142, of the grant by Louis le Debonair, which 
alludes to the grant of Pepin and Charlemagne. 



25 

claimed by the Popes restored to them ; from the 
period when, by the letters patent of the Emperor 
Rodolph, in 1278, the states of the Church, as 
they now exist, were ceded to Nicholas III. ; 
and lastly, from the year 1355, when the Em- 
peror Charles IV. recognized at his coronation 
the absolute independence of the temporal autho- 
rity of the Popes, promising never to set foot in 
Rome, or in any of the territories subject to its 
dominion, without the Pope's consent, — a legally 
established independent authority was acquired 
by the successors of St. Peter, which has been 
handed down to the present time. 

It being, therefore, an established fact that, 
from the first ages of Christianity, the Bishops 
were subjects of the Roman Emperors, and not 
independent princes ; and that, up to the conver- 
sion of Constantine, in the beginning of the 
fourth century, they were under the government 
of Pagan sovereigns, it is of essential importance 
to inquire in what way they then exercised their 
authority ; whether in the persuasion of any su- 
periority derived from the Saviour of the world, 
they then set up any pretension to interfere in the 
civil government of their country ; or promulgated 
against the idolatrous sovereigns, under whom 
they exercised their functions, the anathemas 
with which they have since visited the indepen- 
dent princes of the world? The evidence of 



26 

history is opposed to the assumption of any such 
authority on their parts. The Roman Pontiffs, 
during the first ages, while preaching and prac- 
tising the holy precepts of Christianity, increased 
their influence in proportion to the number of 
proselytes, who, abandoning the rites of their 
forefathers, took refuge in the sacred doctrines 
which they promulgated. 

By their piety and humility, they inspired the 
new converts with sentiments of veneration and 
devotion^ which they repaid by the protection 
and support their increasing influence and aug- 
mented resources enabled them to afford. 

Being chosen by the free voice of the people, 
they devoted themselves to their service, and 
administered to the wants of those who stood in 
need of assistance ; but it was only in the second 
century, that, a sort of hierarchy having been 
established in the Roman Church, the Popes, by 
acquiring greater lustre in the eyes of the peo- 
ple, obtained from them increased reverence and 
spiritual submission. Their authority, however, 
was limited to that which belonged to the Bishops 
of other Churches, and more particularly to those 
estabhshed in the East. 

That it was no other, — that they were neither 
considered as superior to them, nor as infallible, 
is proved, not only by the history of the four first 
centuries, but by the authority of the Fathers of 



27 

the Church, the Saints, who to this day are 
worshipped and adored by the CathoHc Church. 
In the second century, Popes Anicetus and Vic- 
tor, having wished to introduce a new discipline 
as to the day on which Easter should be observed, 
the Eastern Bishops disapproved and resisted 
the attempt, and continued to follow their ancient 
practice. St. Irenseus wrote to Victor, censuring 
his conduct, and resisting his pretended supre- 
macy, or the right which he had assumed of 
excommunicating those who differed from him in 
opinion*. 

* Eusebius, in book v., chap, 23, 24, gives an account of 
this dispute, from which it is evident that the Church of Rome 
then exercised no supremacy over those in the East, or in 
France ; for, after stating the many Fathers who agreed in 
opinion with Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, in maintaining the 
ancient usage, and who would not be moved from the rule of 
faith which had been handed down to them from their prede- 
cessors, having learnt from them to yield obedience to God 
and not to men, — he relates, that the Bishops, who had been 
excommunicated by Victor as inclined to heresy, wrote to him, 
and ordered him, that he should rather attend to keep peace 
amongst ecclesiastics, and to maintain harmony and union of 
sentiment. Eusebius states, that the letters still exist by which 
these Bishops seyerely reprimanded Victor 3ls one who ill admi- 
nistered to the wants of the Church ; and that Irenagus and 
the Bishops of Gaul held the same language towards him. 
That Irenaeus, in his correspondence with him, referred to 
many differences of discipline, as maintained by different 
Churches, all which, under the former Bishops of the Church, 



28 

Stephen I., in 253, having engaged in a con- 
troversy with the African Church, upon the bap- 
tism of heretics^ and having pretended to a 
superiority over other bishops, he was vehemently 
opposed by St. Cyprian, by Dionysius of Alex- 
andria^ and by Fermilianus, Bishop of Caesarea ; 
and a council having been assembled at Carthage^ 
the opinion of the Pope was condemned, and his 
pretensions resisted*. 

he, Victor, tlien governed, were never interfered with ; that 
even Polycarp and Pope Anicetus, not having been able to 
agree upon the day for the observance of Easter, yet remained 
on terms of perfect harmony, deciding that each Church should 
follow its own regulations. Nothing can be stronger than the 
whole of this chapter of Eusebius against the Roman doctrine, 
of the necessity of unity and of submission to one \dsible Head 
of the Church. 

* In proof of tliis, it will not be uninteresting to give the 
following extracts from some of those letters of St. Cyprian 
which bear upon this point. In the one to Pompeius, after 
teUing him that he has sent him a copy of the letter he had 
received from Pope Stephen, he says, " This letter, when you 
" have read it, wiW sen^e as a stronger proof to you of his 
" error, and of the efforts he makes to maintain the cause of 
" heretics against Christians and the Church of God ; since, 
" amongst other things, either vain or contradictory, which 
*' without sufficient knowledge, or improvidently, he -wTites," 
&c. ; and, towards the end of the same letter, " how could the 
*' hard obstinacy of our brother Stephen ever come to this, 
" that he should approve the baptism of Marcianus, and of 
" Valentian, and of the other blasphemers of God the Father." 

In his letter to Quirinus upon the same subject, alluding 



29 

During the reiga of this Pope, the Spanish 
bishops, in the case of Basilides and Martial,, 

to the conduct of Stephen, he makes use of the following 
expressions: — " We ought in all things to preserve the 
*' unity of the Catholic Church, nor yield to our adversa- 
*' ries in any thing which relates to faith and truth : but 
" Non est de consuetudine prescribendum, sed ratione vin- 
" cendum. Since even Peter, whom our Saviour elected 
" the chief of the Apostles, and upon whom he built his 
*' Church, in discussing with Paul upon the circumcision, 
*' never pretended, nor insolently or arrogantly assumed, 
" or said, that he held a primacy, and that it belonged to 
" the newly-elected, or to posterity, to obey him. Nor 
" did he despise Paul, who first had been a persecutor of 
*' the Church, but he easily consented to the advice of 
*' truth ; offering thus an example of concord and of pa- 
** tience, that we may not be pertinacious in our opinions, 
" but that we may embrace that which, being true and le- 
" gitimate, may sometimes usefully be suggested to us by 
" our brethren and colleagues." 

In the speech of St. Cyprian, in the Council of Carthage, 
when alluding to the supremacy to which Stephen pre- 
tended, he says, — •' It now remains that each of us should 
" declare our sentiments, no one having a power to judge, 
" or to remove another, who should have a different opi- 
" nion, from the right of communion. Since no one of us 
*' has been constituted bishop of bishops, or by tyran- 
*' nical terror has forced his colleagues to obey him, since 
" each bishop is the arbiter of his own liberty and autho- 
" rity, so that, not being able to judge others, the others 
*' cannot judge him ; but each of us awaits the judgment 
" of our Lord Jesus Christ, who solely and alone has the 
" power to raise us to the government of his Church, and 



30 

equally condemned his assumed superiority, and 
maintained their own decisions in opposition to 
his decrees. 

Under Sylvester I., the Council of Aries, as- 
sembled by order of the Emperor Constantino, 

" of judging according to our conduct." It is evident 
from the language thus used, that St. Cyprian, who was 
not only high in the hierarchy of the Church, but who is 
adored by the Catholics as a saint, was entirely persuaded 
that no supremacy or infallibility existed in the Bishops 
of Rome. Firmilian uses still stronger language ; and in 
his letter to St. Cyprian, says, — " I am truly indig- 
" nant at the visible and manifest folly of the Bishop of 
" Rome, when he glorifies himself upon the place where 
" his bishopric is situated, and pretends to hold a succes- 
" sion from Peter, upon whom the whole Church is founded. 
" We may say that we oppose to the custom of the Ro- 
*' mans which Stephen objects to us, the truth which is 
" founded upon the doctrines of our Saviour and the 
" Apostles. But let us pass lightly over the conduct of 
" this Roman Bishop, lest the audacity and insolence with 
" which he conducts himself should render his actions 
" still more grievous." The authority of Tertullian is 
equally strong against any supremacy in the Church of 
Rome. In chapter 20, he produces, against heretics, " the 
" faith of all the churches founded by the Apostles, or 
" derived from them, which together may be called the one 
^' same Church, shewing the same unity which came from 
" the Apostles ;" and in his chapter 36, which has already 
been cited, he says, — " If you wish to persuade yourself, 
" look to all the Apostolic Churches, to Corinth, the Phi- 
" lippians, the Thessalonians, to Ephesus, or in Italy, to 
" Rome." 



3i 

condemned the heresy of the Donatists, and 
sent a copy of their decrees to the Pope ; but it 
is indisputable that they required from him no 
confirmation of them. The proceedings upon 
this heresy are the best proofs of the dependence 
of the ecclesiastical upon the imperial autho- 
rity ; for the Donatists, being dissatisfied with 
the decisions of this Council, appealed from 
them to the Emperor, who himself examined 
the whole affair at Milan, in 316_, and gave his 
final judgment upon it *. 

* Julius is the first Pope who appears openly to have 
laid claim to a supremacy over all other bishops, — in the ex- 
ercise of which he thought proper to object to the decisions 
of the Council of Antioch, held in 341 ; and in a letter ad- 
dressed to the Fathers assembled there, he stated, — "That 
" custom had introduced into the ecclesiastical discipline, 
** that the general affairs of the Church should be treated 
*' with the consent of the See of Rome." This pretension 
was resisted by the Fathers, who having re-assembled in 
343, denied the authority of Rome in their dioceses, and 
reproved the Pope for interfering in what could in no way 
concern him. They stated *' the respect they bore for the 
** Church of Rome, but reminded the Pope, that the per-^ 
" sons who had instructed him in the faith, had come from 
" the East ; they stated themselves to be persuaded that, 
*' although their dioceses were less extensive, yet they 
" were neither less estimable, nor in any way inferior to 
** the Roman Bishops, while they considered themselves 
" as very superior in virtue." — The dispute which was 



32 

In the Council of Nice, which was assembled 
shortly after the one at Arles^ and was presided 
over by Hosius, Bishop of Cordova^ the au- 
thority, or primacy, of the Pope was limited to 
those churches which were subject to the juris- 
diction of the Vicarius Urbis, which comprised 

thus occasioned, led to the assembly of a Council at Sar- 
dica, from which the Eastern Bishops seceded to Philippo- 
polis, where they severely censured the Pope, and the 
Western Bishops, and thus gave rise to the first schism of 
the Greek and Latin Churches. This schism was in part 
appeased by the deposition of the Pope Liberius, the suc- 
cessor of Victor, by the Emperor Constans, and by the 
nomination of Felix as his successor. Liberius, having 
afterwards conformed to the semi-arian doctrine of the 
Eastern Bishops and of the Emperor, and having consented 
to the condemnation of St. Athanasius, was replaced in 
his bishopric ; but in conjunction with Felix, the two con- 
tinuing to reign together. 

As regarding the pretended supremacy, it is worthy of 
remark, that a letter from the Pope Damasus, in 382, to 
Paulinus, Bishop of Antioch, referring to the Council of 
Nice, is totally different in the Greek translation, which ex- 
ists in the Ecclesiastical History by Theodoret, from the 
Latin, which is now produced as the original. According 
to the last, Damasus speaks of a Council at Rome, which 
sanctioned the decrees of that of Nice, and mentions also 
the baptism of Constantine by Pope Sylvester, no allusion 
to either of which exists in the Greek copy ; and as neither 
of these facts are supported by the history of the times, 
this part of the letter is looked upon as an interpolation of 
a later period. 



33 

the seven southern provinces of Italy, and the 
Islands of Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica *. 

In the beginning of the fifth century, in the 
dispute which arose in the case of the pres- 
byter Apriarius^ between Popes Zosimus and 
Celestinus I. and the Bishops of Africa, the 
pretended supremacy of Rome was totally re- 
jected, and the bishops of Alexandria and Con- 
stantinople concurred with the council of Car- 
thage in the doctrines which it had maintained f. 

* With regard to the jurisdiction of Rome, the Counci\ 
of Nice decreed, that the ancient custom should be ob- 
served in Alexandria and in the City of Rome, which re- 
quires that the Bishop of Alexandria should be charged 
with the government of the Churches of Egypt, as that of 
Rome is charged with the government of the Churches 
Suburbicarias. — Vide Rufin. vol. ii. p. 46. 

t Extract of the Synodal letter of the African bishops to 
Pope Celestinus, reported in Cone. vol. ii. p. 1674. — " For, 
*' as to some one being sent by your holiness (that is to say, 
" a legate, to judge in these parts), we find no council that 
" has ordered it. In regard to what you communicated to 
*' us some years since, by our brother Faustinus, as being 
*' decreed by the Council of Nice, we have found nothing 
*' similar to it in the most authentic copies of that council, 
"which we have received from our holy colleague, Cyril, 
" bishop of Alexandria, and from the venerable Atticus, 
" bishop of Constantinople. Therefore, do not listen to 
" those who will advise you to send hither any of your 
" functionaries to execute your orders ; and beware of 
*' sending such, for fear that you may be accused of wishing 

D 



34 

Many other instances might be brought forward 
to prove the total absence of any obedience or 
submission on the part of the Christian churches 
to the see of Rome, or of any acknowledged in- 
fallibility in its bishop during the early ages of 
Christianity*. The church of Milan even was 
almost constantly separated from its jurisdiction 
until the eleventh century, and to this moment 
follows a different discipline f. After the total 

*' to introduce the pomp of secular dominion in the Church 
*' of Jesus Christ, which ought to shew to every one the 
*' example of simplicity and humility." 

* After the general council, held by order of the Emperor 
Justinian, at Constantinople in 553, the greater part of the 
western churches separated from Pope Vigilius and his 
successors, Pelagius the First and Second, refusing to 
agree to the condemnation of the doctrines of Origen and 
" the three chapters,'' to which these popes had given their 
sanction. 

t Under the Roman emperors, from the time of Con- 
stantine, the empire was divided into different jurisdictions. 
Italy was separated into two vicariates, the one of Rome, 
the other called of Italy, the capital of which was Milan. 
The church followed the same distribution, the clergy of 
one vicariate obeying the bishops of Rome; that of the 
other, the bishop of Milan. In the other provinces of the 
empire, the same arrangement was established; and at the 
councils of Constantinople, in 381 and 536, the order of the 
patriarchs, co-equal in authority, was as follows: Rome, 
Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem (a), 

(a) Vide Giannone, vol. i.] 



35 

overthrow of the Eastern^ the Egyptian^ the 
African, and the Spanish churches, by the pro- 
pagation of Mahometanism, and while the Latin 
church was fortunate enough to succeed in con- 
verting the Barbarians, who overran the western 
empire, an opportunity of asserting its supre- 
macy, while its rivals were levelled with the 
earth, was afforded, and judiciously improved by 
it. But from this adventitious circumstance no 
inference can be deduced as to its original su- 
periority ; so much otherwise is the evidence of 
all history, that even as to the rank which, 
amongst other bishops, was assigned to the Ro- 
man prelates, it was decided in the council of Chal- 
cedon, in 451, that there was equality amongst 
primates, but that the Bishop of Constantinople 
was to be next in place, but equal in rank, 
with the Pope of Rome * ; and even Gregory the 

* The council of Chalcedon, in 451, declared in the 
eighth canon, that the " ancient fathers had granted certain 
*' privileges to Rome, because it was the residence of the 
" imperial court. For the same motives, the one hundred 
" and thirty bishops assembled in the second general council 
" of Constantinople, had also granted similar privileges to 
" the Bishop of Constantinople, stating, with reason, that 
*' a city, honoured by the presence of a court, an imperial 
'• senate, and with rights equal to those of ancient Rome, 
*' should be exalted and raised in the ecclesiastical order, 
" so that new Rome should yield in nothing to the old 
" one." 

D 2 



36 

Firsts while he condemned the title of Universal 
Bishop, which, notwithstanding the decree of 
Chalcedon, had been assumed by the primate 
of Constantinople, devised only for himself that 
of Primate of Italy and Apostle of the West *. 
While, therefore^ there is no authority to pre- 
sume that the Bishop of Rome was looked up 
to in the early ages of Christianity, as the 
head of the Christian world ; while, from the 
inspired writings of the Apostles themselves 
there is no circumstance which can in any way 
confirm the belief, that St. Peter was considered 
as the regulator of their conduct f ; while, on the 

* Boniface the Third, in 607, is first stated, in the Ca- 
tholic history of the Popes, to have obtained a declaration 
from the Emperor Phocas, that the Roman See, as the one 
which had been occupied by the Prince of the Apostles, 
should be designated and considered as the head of all 
other churches. But it is notorious that the schism, which 
in 879 divided the Greek and Latin churches, and which 
had its rise in the jealousies of the primates of the East 
and West, was brought to a crisis by the dispute, whether 
the Bulgarians, who had lately been converted to Christi- 
anity, should be subject to the pope, or to the patriarch 
of Constantinople; thus evidently proving that the two 
churches were considered, at that time, as maintaining in- 
dependent jurisdictions. 

t Some Catholics quote the 10th chapter of St. John, begin- 
ning at the 14th verse : " I am the good shepherd, and know 
" my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father know- 
*^ eth me, even so know I the Father ; and I lay down my life 



ST 

contrary, it is notorious, that on the question 
respecting the mode of living after the manner 

" for the sheep : and other sheep I have, which are not 
" of this fold; them also I must bring, and they shall 
" hear my voice; and there shall be one fold and one shep- 
herd :" — as if the good shepherd was St. Peter and his suc- 
cessors. And also the 11th verse of the l7th chapter of 
the same apostle : " And now I am no more in the world, 
" but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy 
" Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou 
" hast given me, that they may be one as we are." As if 
the being one only as we are (namely, the Father and Son) 
meant to convey, that all Christians were to be of the same 
mind with St. Peter. The 13th chapter of the Second Epistle 
of St. Paul to the Corinthians, verse 11, " Finally, brethren, 
" farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, 
" live in peace ; and the God of love and peace shall be with 
" you," is also quoted ; as if the admonition, " be of one 
mind," could in any way relate to St. Peter ; whereas it is 
St. Paul who exhorts the Corinthians to be of one mind 
amongst themselves, never alluding to the other apostle. 
Also, the 4th chapter of St. Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians, 
verse 1 : " I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you, 
" that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are 
" called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, 
" forbearing one another in love, endeavouring to keep the 
" unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. There is one 
" body, and one spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of 
" your calling ; one Lord, one faith, and one baptism, one 
" God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, 
" and in you all." As if his injunction to have one Lord, 
one faith, and one baptism, meant that these should be under 
St. Peter, of whom he makes no mention. If 



38 

of the Jews and Gentiles, St. Paul appeared at 
Jerusalem^ to inquire as to the doctrines of that 
church, opposing himself to St. Peter*, — it is 

If anything was wanting to prove that the Apostles did not 
consider the Church of Christ as subservient to St. Peter, it 
would be the total absence of all mention of him in all these 
injunctions to the newly-converted Christians : they are re- 
commended to be united amongst themselves, and with the 
one Lord, their Saviour ; but the intermediate authority of a 
head of the Church is nowhere to be discovered in the direc- 
tions given to them. Upon the importance of unity, which 
by the Catholics is so much insisted upon, and which relates 
not to the imity of the acknowledgment and \A'orship of our 
Saviour, but of the discipline of the Church, it is not un- 
worthy of remark, that the council of Jerusalem, to which 
reference has already been made, sanctioned the most essential 
departure from that unity, when they allowed the con^^erted 
Gentiles the privilege of non- conformity to the law of Moses 
in the ceremony of circumcision, while they maintained it for 
the Christian Jews. 

* St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians, chapter ii., verse 7 : — 
" But contrariwise, when they saw that the gospel of the un- 
" circumsion was committed unto me, as the gospel of the 
" circumcision was unto Peter (for he that wrought effectually 
'* in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same 
*' was mighty in me toward the Gentiles) ; and when James, 
'' Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the 
" grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barna- 
" bas the right hands of fellowship ; that we should go unto 
" the heathen, and they unto the circumcision. Only they 
" would that we should remember the poor ; the same which 
*' I also was forward to do. But when Peter was come to 
*' Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be 



39 

at the same time manifest, that the fundamental 
principle of the Catholic Church, that obedience 
and submission to the civil authority, as esta- 
blished in the words of our Saviour, " Give unto 
^^ Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and unto 
^^ God the things which are God's," was ever the 
principle by which was regulated the conduct of 
the early popes of Rome towards the imperial 
authority under which they exercised their mi- 
nistry. 

It is evident from what has been stated, that 
the belief of any temporal authority in the Popes, 
either as independent princes, or as the regula- 
tors of sovereigns, or of the obedience due to 
them from their people, cannot be an article of 
faith legally to be required from the Roman 
Catholics. No groundwork upon which to found 
such a pretension can be discovered in history ; 
no assumption of any such authority can be pro- 
duced in the early ages of Christianity. In the 

*' blamed. For before that certain came from James, he did 
" eat Avith the Gentiles ; but when they were come, he with- 
" drew and separated himself, fearing them which were of 
" the circumcision. And the other Jews dissembled likewise 
" with him, insomuch that Barnabas also Avas carried away 
*' with their dissimulation. But when I saw that they walked 
'* not uprightly according to the truth of the Gospel, I said 
" unto Peter, before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest 
" after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why 
" compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews V 



40 

time of the apostles^ and under the fathers of 
the church, a constant submission, even to Pagan 
authority, exemplifies the submissive character 
towards the civil government ; the meekness of 
the religion which our Saviour vouchsafed to 
reveal to mankind. Upon the doctrines trans- 
mitted to us in the gospel, upon the conduct of 
our Saviour himself, it would be vain to attempt 
the establishment of the principle of any tem- 
poral authority. To believe in it can never be 
necessary to salvation, and can never be demanded 
as a rule of faith *. 

After having thus far pursued this part of the 
subject, it is necessary to turn back from the 
doctrines which may be derived from the exami- 
nation of the early history of the Catholic Church 
to the contemplation of those principles which, 
in direct opposition to them, it has at various 
times promulgated. 

Without entering into any tedious detail of the 

* There can be no doubt, even according to the Catholic 
history of the Popes, from St. Peter downwards, that (to use 
the words of Lord Clarendon) there has not been one half 
century of years in which it hath not been affirmed, that the 
successors of St. Peter either did not challenge or assume to 
themselves that power and authority that is now claimed by 
divine right ; or that they Avere opposed and contradicted in 
the point by considerable parts of the Christian Church, 
which reject it from a Catholic verity, and so cannot be reck- 
oned amongst the Catholic doctrines. 



41 

various steps by which the assumption of almost 
universal power by Gregory VII. was prepared, 
it is enough here to state the conduct pursued 
by this able and domineering prelate towards the 
Emperor, Henry IV., the son of his early friend 
and protector. In the fourth year of his ponti- 
ficate, he cited the Emperor to appear before 
him, to answer for his conduct, in resisting his 
authority : unless he appeared^ he threatened to 
depose and excommunicate him; and when, in 
obedience to these decrees, his imperial majesty 
arrived at the papal residence in Canosa, he was 
made to await three days^ almost without food, 
and despoiled of his imperial garments, until this 
haughty pontiff condescended to admit him to his 
presence ; where the sentence of excommunica- 
tion was only in part remitted to him^ as it de- 
pended on the condition of his appearing before 
another tribunal, and where the re-assumption of 
his imperial authority was made subservient to 
the same condition. After the statement of such 
an assumption of authority, it is almost needless 
to mention the declaration of Gregory, that, as 
Pope, he was the first prince on earth ; that he 
was infaUible ; that he could depose sovereigns 
at his will, and could dispense with the oaths of 
fideUty of their subjects. These maxims set forth 
in his Dictatus Papw were those by which he was 
governed in the course of his reign : they were 



42 

equally followed by his successors ; and without 
referring to the many instances in which they 
were employed, in a long series of years (amongst 
the most remarkable of which were the accept- 
ance by Innocent III. of the sovereignty of the 
kingdoms of Portugal, Arragon, Poland^ and Eng- 
land, as granted to him by their respective sove- 
reigns ; the sentence of excommunication and 
deposition issued against the Emperor Frederic 
Barbarossa, and his son, Frederic II., by Alex- 
ander III. and Innocent IV. ; and the pretension 
to dispose of the government of the Indies, and 
of the newly-discovered continent of America, by 
Martin V. and Alexander VL), it is enough to 
cite the excommunication of Queen Elizabeth by 
Pius V. ; in which he cut her off, as a heretic and 
favourer of heretics, from the unity of the body of 
Christ ; deprived her of her pretended title to 
the kingdom, and of all dominion, dignity, and 
privilege whatsoever ; absolved all her subjects 
from their allegiance ; forbade them to obey her 
or her laws ; and included all who should disre- 
gard this prohibition in the same sentence of ex- 
communication. It is needless to go further to 
prove the assumption of the extreme of temporal 
authority ; and it is only necessary to state, that 
the Papal church has never retracted this sen- 
tence, or any of the many others of the same 
nature promulgated by the Roman Pontiffs, — 
proving thus, that it considers them as distinctly 



I 



48 

according to its lawful prerogatives, and within 
the bounds of its authority ; and, as an additional 
proof of this fact, it is necessary to observe, that 
no constituted Catholic authority has ever pre- 
sumed to declare against them *. 

* In principle, the first article of the rights of the Galilean 
Church, and the answers of the six Catholic Universities to 
the questions proposed by Mr. Pitt, deny this power in the 
Papal See ; hut the application which the Court of Rome has 
made of it in the case here cited, and in innumerable others, 
has never been condemned by any Catholic council or recog- 
nized authority ; nor has the Papal See ever consented to 
retract it. Such, indeed, is the constant policy of the Court 
of Rome. At the general settlement of Europe in the Con- 
gress of Vienna, it was the only power which did not renounce 
its sovereignty over the States which were detached from it : 
on the contrary, it protested against the cession of the Contat 
of the Venaissin and Avignon to France ; and it still conti- 
nues to do the same as regarding the Duchies of Parma and 
Placentia, although their separation from any dependence 
upon it was effected by the treaties of the quadruple alliance 
in 1718 ; by that of Seville in November, 1729 ; by that of 
Vienna in November, 17.38 ; and by that of Aix-la-Chapelle 
in 1748 (a). In the same way it maintains its pretensions to 

(«) The yearly protestation of the Court of Rome on St. Peter's 
Day is as follows : — The ministers of the Camerali make the pro- 
test, and the Pope answers •• — " Protestationem admittimus quaciin- 
•' que hactenus g-esta pro tuendis dominio et possessione Status 
** nostri Parmensis et Placentini ratahabentes, confirmamus solemni 
" hac Die beatorum Apostolorum Petri et Pauli consecrata mar- 
" tyrio ; nihil etiam deinceps in hujusmodi eorum patrimonio asse- 
^* rendo et vindicando, Ornnipotentis Dei prsesidio, ipsorumque 
" Apostolorum ope freti, ad extremum usque Spiritum prseter- 
*' piissuri." 



44 

From this statement it is evident that the power 
assumed by the Popes is very different from that 

every state, and to every principle, it has ever either held domi- 
nion over or professed. The extravagant supremacy which it 
aspired to in the middle ages, is well kno\^Ti to have been 
grounded, in a great measure, upon the pretended decretals 
of Isidore : these have universally been acknowledged to be 
forgeries ; yet the claims established upon them have never 
been given up. 

Nothing can more strongly mark the poHcy of Rome in 
cases of this nature, than the answer of Cardinal Litta to 
Bishop Poynter ; in which he states, " that with regard to 
" the regium exequatur^ it cannot even be made a subject 
" of negociation ; such a practice must essentially affect the 
" free exercise of that supremacy of the Church which has 
" been given in trust by God : so it would assuredly be crimi- 
" nal to permit or transfer it to any lay power ; and, indeed, 
*' such a permission has never anywhere been granted." 

At the time the Cardinal was writing this, he knew that 
there was not a state, either Catholic, schismatic, or Protest- 
ant, vdth which the Holy See was in communication, in which 
this system was not pursued. But as it was a Roman preten- 
sion that it should not exist, it is spoken of by him as a thing 
not to be heard of. So as to the appointment to bishoprics ; 
the Papal See maintains that it must come from the Pope. 
The Russian Government assumes this power, as belonging 
to the Emperor ; and in this difficulty Monsignor, now Cardi- 
nal, Arezzo, while Nuncio in Warsaw, hit upon the mezzo ter- 
miner of answering the ministerial communication from St. 
Petersburg, which stated, that the Emperor had nominated a 
Bishop, and desired the Pope's investiture, by saying, that he 
had received the Emperor's recommendation, and would pro- 
ceed to obtain what he requested. That such should be the 
practice of the Roman Governm.ent, and that it should be 



45 

which, from the evidence of history, they can in 
any way be entitled to, or, from the example of 
the Apostles and the early fathers of the Church, 
they can be borne out in maintaining ; yet it is 

suited to its peculiar position, is easily to be understood. Its 
power exists alone upon the opinion or credulity of mankind. 
This foundation is of a very fluctuating nature. The Popes 
have at one time been raised upon it above all other sove- 
reigns ; at others, it has failed to sustain them in any tempo- 
ral authority whatsoever. But to remain where they now are, 
or to look to an extension of authority or dominion (a sentiment 
which has been common to them as to every other sovereign), 
their only weapons for offence or defence are their preten- 
sions, and the degree of deference which will be paid to them. 
The present Pope, however mild and pacific in his nature, 
would as eagerly seize upon the universal government of the 
world, as pretended to by Gregory VII., if the opportunity 
was afforded him, as the King of Sweden would establish him- 
self in the extended empire of Charles XII., or the govern- 
ment of France in the conquests of Bonaparte : to these, the 
force of arms is wanting — to the former, the ignorance and 
bigotry of the middle ages ; the constant efforts of both will 
be to improve their means of action. Fortunately, the danger 
to be apprehended from either of them is far removed ; and 
there would seem to be as little policy in refusing to enter into 
commercial treaties, or any friendly intercourse, with the mili- 
tary states above mentioned, lest by such means they should 
increase their resources so as to accomplish their ends, as in 
refusing to confer a vast benefit on the people of Ireland, by 
amalgamating them in their general allegiance to the state, 
lest the Church should, at some future time, meet with a state 
of barbarism such as to bear v<ith or support their now almost 
forgotten pretensions. 



46 

equally notorious that this power has been sub- 
mitted to, and to this day forms a part of the 
jurisdiction of the Court of Rome. 

It is derived from the great principles of infal- 
libility, and the representation of Christ on 
earth. With these, as the groundwork of the 
fabric,, what human power may not conscien- 
tiously be assumed? But that it should be 
obeyed requires a degree of superstition, of 
blind submission, of ignorance and of religious 
awe, which, fortunately for the liberties of man- 
kind, has never been completely, and seldom to 
any great extent, established over the world. 
With the increase of knowledge, with the exten- 
sion of civiHzation, and the amelioration of the 
civil governments of Europe, the court of Rome 
has felt the impossibility of maintaining the 
exercise of these powers, and has withdrawn 
them from public observation^. 

* The change in the pretensions of the court of Rome may 
be dated from the unfavourable issue of its struggle with the 
Venetians in the commencement of the seventeenth century, 
when Paul V., having excommunicated them, and laid their 
republic under an interdict, was obliged to retract that sen- 
tence, without obtaining any submission. 

On this occasion the Papal claims to a supreme ecclesiastical 
dominion were refuted, its excommunication examined, and 
contradicted as invalid by the rules of law, and its interdict 
resisted and condemned as mthout ground ; and all this by a 
supreme body of very devoted Catholics. 



47 

Their total futility was proved in the year 
1768^ in the dispute between Clement XIII. 
and Ferdinand, Duke of Parma ; upon the publi- 
cation of several edicts regulating the acquisition 
of property within the duchy, by ecclesiastics, 
forbidding the appeal to Rome or any foreign 
tribunal, in cases of disputed estates belonging 
to the subjects of Parma; and, lastly, prohibiting 
all judges, or tribunals, whether lay or ecclesi- 
astic, from giving effect to any writing, order, 
letter, sentence, decree, bull, brief, or provision 
from Rome, or from any foreign tribunal, or au- 
thority whatsoever, without it should previously 
have received the regium exequatur. 

The Pope, by a brief or monitory, censured 
the Duke for the introduction of this jurisdiction, 
which he characterized as tending to produce a 
schism, by which the sheep would be separated 
from their shepherd : he declared all the acts 
relating to it to be null and of no effect ; and 
pronounced all those who had taken any part in 
their formation, publication, or execution, to have 
incurred the censures of the Church, to have 
fallen from his apostolic grace, and not to be 
capable of receiving absolution (unless in the 
apprehension of death) from any person but him- 
self, or his successor in the Papal Chair *. The 

* The letter of the Pope, which is here alluded to, sets out 
with stating, that the Duchy of Parma and Placentia belonged 



48 

Government of Parma resisted these menaces^ 
and communicated the documents relating to 
them to the courts with which it was in alliance ; 
France, Spain^ and Naples protested against 

to the Papal See, thus reviving the ancient pretensions which 
had been advanced in 1512, by Julius 11. This Pontiff, in his 
treaty with the Emperor Maximilian, had accepted this Duchy 
as a fief of the Empire, and it is so described in the letter of 
the Emperor Charles V. to Clement VII., dated Grenada, 
September 17th, 1526 ; notwithstanding which, on the occa- 
sion of the imperial troops having taken up their winter-quar- 
ters there in 1708, the court of Rome issued a decree, by 
which it excommunicated all those who had any share in this 
transaction. 

The answer of the Emperor Joseph to this decree will be 
found in the Appendix {A). (jB) is the answer of the Em- 
press Maria Theresa to the application of the Pope, Clement 
XIII., to protect him against the Bourbon courts, when they 
took possession of Avignon and Benevento. (C) is the copy 
of a despatch from the Minister du Tillot to his sovereign 
the Duke Ferdinand of Parma, when he observed that the 
influence of the Catholic clergy was leading his Royal High- 
ness to relax in the maintenance of those measures which had 
occasioned the differences with the court of Rome, and which 
had been established under his administration, and {D) is a 
correspondence between the Duke Ferdinand and Clement 
XIV., after Du Tillot had retired from Parma, and when the 
Duke had in a great measure conformed to the wishes of the 
court of Rome. (E) is an Extract from the registers of the 
Parliament of Paris, which relates to the affair of Parma ; and 
{F) is an edict of the Empress Maria Theresa against the 
introduction of the Bull in Coena Domini in her states of 
Lombardy. 



49 

them^ suppressed the publication of the Pope's 
letter within their states, and required from him 
a retractation. This satisfaction not having been 
obtained^ the French government took possession 
of the Contat of theVenaissin and of Avignon, and 
the King of Naples of Benevento and Pontecorvo. 
The courts of Vienna and Portugal declared 
their disapprobation of the Pope's conduct; 
under these circumstances, the court of Rome 
not venturing to proceed, and the government of 
Parma still adhering to the measures it had 
adopted, the occupation of the Papal provinces 
continued, till after the succeeding Pope, Clement 
XIV., in 1774, had suspended the effects of the 
Papal brief, as it regarded the Duke of Parma, 
and had given him his Apostolic benediction ; 
and until, in conformity with the demands of the 
Bourbon courts, he had suppressed the order of 
the Jesuits. 

These objects being attained, the Kings of 
France and Naples, at the intercession of the 
Duke of Parma, withdrew their troops from the 
provinces they had taken possession of. By the 
letters patent of the King of France, the motives 
for this restitution are declared to be, that '' It 
" having pleased God to give to his Church, by 
*' the exaltation of Clement XIV., a Pope, who 
" had all the virtues and good intentions neces- 

E 



50 

" sary to govern with wisdom, and to the satis- 
" faction of all those who were subject to the 
** Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church ; and 
" having also been informed that, regretting the 
'* troubles which his predecessor by his conduct 
" had created_, he had not ceased to give to his 
'^ Serene Highness the Infant all possible proofs 
" of his sincere affection^ and of his desire to re- 
" gulate everything which could concern the exe- 
" cution of ancient treaties in the most friendly 
*' manner; so his Majesty, not being able to resist 
** the intercession of his beloved grandson, to give 
" to the common Father of the Faithful efficient 
" marks of the confidence he reposed in the 
*' principles by which his conduct was directed, 
*^ and in the assurance which he had given of 
" the sincerity of his intentions, orders that the 
** Apostolic See shall be re-established in the 
•* possession of the territories which had been 
^'^ taken from it." 

In our own times, the nullity of a similar 
menace has been made manifest in the unjust re- 
moval of the late Pope from his capital by Bona- 
parte : the thunders of the Vatican were hurled 
against this sacrilegious despiser of the sacred 
character of the Apostle ; but they were unheeded 
arid unattended to : and that sentence of excom- 
munication, which eight centuries ago would have 



61 

thrown Europe into convulsion, was productive 
only of greater hardships to the pious and vene- 
rable person by whom it had been promulgated. 

The claim of the authority still exists^ but it lies 
dormant, where it will remain till ignorance and 
darkness shall again cover the earth. Whenever, 
in the general overthrow of the present govern- 
ments of Europe, and in the establishment of 
some barbarian rule, civilization shall be chased 
away, then we may expect again to see the 
exercise of Papal dominion in all its splendour ; 
but till that time shall arrive, it has departed 
from us — its spirit moveth not on the deep. 

It is under these circumstances that the jus- 
tice of replacing the Catholic subjects of these 
realms on an equal footing with the rest of their 
countrymen, is to be considered : it is at a time 
when every other government in Europe, having 
set at nought the pompous detail of the pon- 
tifical pretensions of the fourteenth century, has 
amalgamated the different sects of Christians 
submitted to their rule, and, by granting them 
equal rights, have buried in obhvion the religious 
feuds by which they were distracted; — it is at 
such a time that the government of England is 
called upon to admit to some additional privi- 
leges that portion of its subjects which profess 
the religion most amenable to authority, the most 
submissive in its doctrines, the most monarchi- 

E 2 



52 

cal in its principles, the only one by which 
passive obedience in the subject is inculcated as 
a dogma of the churchy and where the civil go- 
vernment, when lawfully established, is entitled, 
through a principle of religion, to the support 
and obedience of its subjects*. 

* As evidence of the doctrines of the Catholic church of 
Ireland, as to the obedience and loyalty due to the King, the 
following extract from the pastoral instructions, addressed 
in 1S24, by the archbishops and bishops to the clergy and 
laity of their communion throughout Ireland, will be found 
of considerable interest : — 

" Let us all, dearly beloved brethren, cherish and pro- 
mote a love of order in the city of God, which is the church, 
and discharge our respective duties to our Creator and Re- 
deemer, to each other, and to the state. Let us honour the 
king who reigns over us, and be submissive to his laws. 
God, who created man, is the author of society, and of that 
obedience which is its fundamental law. Those who occupy 
his place in the state, from whatever source their authority 
is immediately derived, hold it at least remotely from him, 
as there is no power but what is from God. The pagans 
themselves were acquainted with this truth ; and the Holy 
Ghost, in the book of Ecclesiasticus, and that of Proverbs, 
assures us of the same. 

*' It is the clear doctrine of St. Paul in his letter to the 
Romans, to which we have just referred, that a resistance 
to lawful authority is an opposition to God himself; that 
the minister of justice is the depository of the divine power; 
that the sword is not given to him in vain, but for the pro- 
tection of the good and the punishment of evil-doers, so 
that every just law has its sanction in the consciences of 



53 

In this point of view it has a claim to tolera- 
tion far superior to the Christian churches sepa- 
rated from the Roman faith. In France, as in 
Hungary ; in a semi-liberal country, as in a 

men, and is to be obeyed, not only on account of the pu- 
nishments attached to its transgression, but still more so, 
because the law of God has commanded us to be submissive 
to it. Whence we are, dearest brethren, to conclude with 
the apostle, that we are to give to every superior what na- 
ture and God and the law have assigned them, namely, 
tribute to whom tribute is due, tax to whom tax is due, 
fear to whom fear is due, and honour, as well as obedience, 
to whom honour is due. This obligation, thus unfolded by 
the apostle, has been comprised in a single sentence by our 
blessed Lord, saying, ' Give therefore to Caesar the things 
that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.' 
We therefore, most beloved children, exhort you most 
earnestly to show, at all times and under every circum- 
stance, a faithful obedience and ready submission to the 
law ; and more especially we recommend to you a cordial 
attachment to the person of our beloved sovereign, whom 
God in his great mercy has appointed to rule over this 
United Kingdom. We do not doubt your attachment to the 
throne. Fidelity to their kings has ever been the charac- 
teristic of Irishmen, and, next to true religion, the most 
precious inheritance which has descended to us from our 
fathers. Cultivate and cherish, dearest brethren, these 
sentiments of loyalty, which your religion, your interest, 
and inclination enjoin ; pray also for the king and those 
that are in high station, that we may lead quiet and holy 
lives in all piety and charity : for this is good and accept- 
able before God our Saviour." 



54 

despotic one, the Protestants are placed on a 
footing of equal rights with their Catholic fellow- 
subjects : yet their religion is founded on a prin- 
ciple of innovation ; — curbed by no ecclesiastical 
authority^ the followers of their creed are ever 
aspiring at political reform ; they have neither 
the docility of the Catholics to recommend them, 
nor the religious restraints which temper them 
into obedience. Still their allegiance to the go- 
vernments under which they live is entire : no 
difficulties are found in their introduction into 
every department of the state ; their very exist- 
ence, as an opposition to their sovereign, has 
ceased with toleration. In the British domi- 
nions, however, the vast proportion of our fel- 
low-subjects detached from the religion of the 
state, renders the consideration of this subject 
different from that which has been to be weighed 
by any other government. Above a fourth of our 
population is separated from the Established 
Church ; their numbers assure their influence ; 
their enmity is alarming ; their power^ while it 
increases, is fostered in hostility ; the torrent is 
powerfully set against the established institutions 
of the country. To stem this torrent, to turn it 
into the wholesome irrigation of the general sys- 
tem, is the irksome duty now imposed upon the 
English statesman. Whether, by opposing, he 
may stop the general devastation, or^ by yield- 



55 

ing, he may yet direct its course, he has still 
unprecedented difficulties to contend against. 
He has the deep-implanted prejudice of the Irish 
Protestant against his Catholic fellow-country- 
men ; his long-maintained monopoly of the in- 
fluence and power of the state ; his pride in , 
repeated conquest ; his unrivalled superiority in 
the country, which all tend to bind in unity a 
great party in the state against all political 
concessions. He has, on the other hand, 
the domineering spirit of the great propor- 
tion of the people, who are for the first 
time rising into consequence, and who might 
reasonably be supposed to seek retribution for 
the past: this large proportion of the people 
are under the influence of the whole body of a 
clergy unconnected with the State, and refusing 
as yet to rank itself in the number of its 
stipendiaries. He has likewise to secure the 
safety of the Irish Protestant Church as esta- 
blished by law, and as guaranteed by the Union ; 
this Church, which, while it ministers to less 
than a fifth of the population, yet absorbs a large 
proportion of the property of the country; — a 
Church, which was established with the view of 
conducting the people to its faith, and of minister- 
ing to their spiritual wants ; but which, having 
failed in its object, is so interwoven with the 



56 

institutions of the country, and so conducive to 
its prosperity, that its maintenance is of absolute 
necessity. Alongside of it he has to build up, 
under a new form, the broken fabric of the Roman 
Catholic hierarchy, to re-establish it, not in oppo- 
sition, but in support of the government, the 
laws, and liberties of the people ; he has to lead 
it towards the maintenance of that authority 
which alike will foster and protect the members 
of its church, with every other portion of the 
king's subjects. 

It has seldom been the lot of man to contend 
against so many difficulties. The greater part 
of them are political : few of them religious. If^ 
from any cause, a large proportion of the inha- 
bitants of any country, for a long period, had been 
deprived of the privileges conceded to their 
fellow- subjects ; if during that time they had 
greatly increased in their numerical superiority 
and consequent power; if a deep-rooted envy 
and hatred of those by whom they conceived 
themselves to have been oppressed, had been 
engendered in them, the task of reuniting them 
to the general body, and of confiding to them an 
equal share of power, must of necessity be diffi- 
cult and dangerous. The plea, rather than the 
cause, for not coming forward to struggle against 
this danger in the present posture of our affairs 



57 

in Ireland, is the religion of the great body who 
have been oppressed*. It is in reality but a 
plea : for if a reference is made to the oaths now- 
taken by the British Catholics, or those they 
were willing to have taken, if the bills proposed 
in the sessions of 1824 had passed^ there will 
appear but two points upon which they would 
differ from the allegiance sworn to by the Pro- 
testant, — the belief in transubstantiation, and in 
the spiritual supremacy of the Pope f . 

* If the Catholics, from their religion, are dangerous sub- 
jects, they are as much so to Catholic as to Protestant sove- 
reigns ; the duty of rebellion, at the order of the Pope, would 
be equally binding upon all who were subject to his supre- 
macy : the question of the degree of danger to the different 
princes of the world could only be decided by the probability 
of the Pope's displeasure. With those Avith whom, being 
separated from his faith he has no concern, and to whose 
conversion he no longer aspires, he is not Ukely to have any 
subject of contention ; but with his adherents he is frequently 
engaged in discussions. The chance of his recurring to his 
anathemas against them is greater than against those with 
whom he is in no way occupied. The history of the last cen- 
tury A\dll show the many disputes between the Pope and the 
Cathohc princes. If, therefore, the Catholics ought to be 
separated from the government in one country, they should 
equally be so from all ; they never can be considered worthy 
of trust or authority. 

t It is reported in the second part, chapter iii., of Mosheim's 
Ecclesiastical History, upon the authority of Berenger (who 
was persecuted in the eleventh century for his doctrines upon 



58 

The first of these is merely a test of religious 
persuasion, and cannot possibly concern the 
State : the second, when stripped of all reference 
to temporal jurisdiction, becomes only a question 
of church-discipline, a preference of appeal in 
cases of conscience, in the rules of worship, in 
the attainment of indulgence, or dispensation, 
which the King, as the supreme head of the 
Protestant Church, would be little jealous of 
having submitted to his judgment, which he 
would reject as not appertaining to his ministry, 
and of which, therefore, the Catholic in no way 
deprives him, when, being instructed by his 
religion to look to a supreme head who will 
afford him comfort, he addresses himself to a 
foreign bishop. If the Catholic refers to Rome 
in this sense only, he cannot fairly be accused 
of giving a divided allegiance to his sovereign. 
What he requires from the foreigner interferes in 
no way with the supremacy of his prince ; it is 
an appeal to a prerogative he pretends not to be 
possessed of. That the British Catholic should 

the subject of transubstantiation), that Gregorj^VII. announced 
to him his intention of consulting the Virgin Mary upon the 
matter in dispute; and Berenger afterwards reports the 
answer Gregory received in these words : " At B. Maria 
audivit, et ad me retuHt nihil de sacrificio Christi cogitandum, 
nihil esse tenendum, nisi quod tenerent authenticse scripturae 
contra quas Berengarius nihil habebat." 



59 

have reduced his faith in the supremacy of the 
Pope to such a standard, that he should be 
wilHng to confirm it by his oath, is an evidence 
of the triumph of reason and common sense over 
the blind superstition which still holds its sway 
over most of the countries where this religion is 
professed. But as it may be proved strictly to 
accord with the ancient practice of the Roman 
Church, so have we no cause to disbelieve the 
declarations ; rather should we rejoice in them, 
as we may thence derive a hope that, whenever 
the Protestants and Catholics shall be united in 
one common bond of unity and friendship, when 
all rivalry upon the doctrines of our faith has 
ceased, we may see our differences wearing 
away, and a more Christian sense of charity 
and indulgence guiding us through our earthly 
pilgrimage to the heavenly boon we equally are 
aspiring to. The British Catholic swears that 
he is not bound to believe or profess that the 
Pope is infallible * : there can be no doubt 

* With this admission, let us hope our Catholic brethren 
may confess the possibility of the salvation of a Protestant ; 
if his Church is not infallible, it may be mistaken in the in- 
terpretation of Scripture : those who differ from them ma3^ 
be right ; and, in the adoration of Our Saviour, may partake 
of his assurance, as given in the Epistle of St. Paul to the 
Ephesians, chap, vi., ver. 24 — " Grace be with all them that 
" love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity ;" and again, in the 
10th chapter of his Epistle to the Romans, verses 9 and 13 — 



60 

that, according to the true history of his church, 
he is correct in this declaration ; but, as I 
have already said, he is no longer^ according 
to the doctrine maintained at Rome, and be- 
lieved in Italy, a true Catholic. Cardinal 

*' If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and 
" shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from 
" the dead, thou shalt be saved ; for whosoever shall call upon 
" the name of the Lord shall be saved." The hope expressed 
in this note has been accomplished ; — the Catholic Bishops, 
Vicars Apostolic, and their coadjutors in England, have pro- 
nounced the Christian doctrine which has so long been desired, 
and which may be considered as the greatest step that has yet 
been taken towards a sincere reconciliation with their Pro- 
testant fellow-subjects. The words of their declaration, 
which is dated in May last, and by which this doctrine is de- 
clared, are in the 10th section of that document : — " But the 
Catholic, whilst he is bound to admit, and, with firm faith, to 
" believe, this doctrinal principle, is bound also, by the Divine 
" commandment, not to judge. He is not allowed, therefore, 
" to pronounce sentence of condemnation on individuals, who 
" may live and die out of the external communion of the Ca- 
" tliohc Church ; nor to pronounce sentence of condemnation 
" against those who may die in an apparent state of sin : all 
" those he leaves to the righteous judgment of the great 
" Searcher of Hearts, who at the last day will render to every 
" man according to his works." This doctrine will be 
asserted by many Catholics not to be new ; if it is not in 
theory, it certainly is in practice, and the very estimable per- 
sons who have declared it, and who, very probably, would 
sacrifice their lives, if necessary to the maintenance of it, 
would find no inconsiderable difficulty in getting it inserted 
at the present moment in the Diario di Roma. 



61 

Gonsalvi^ one of the most liberal and benevo- 
lent men who^ for a long series of years, has 
been called to the administration of the affairs 
of Rome, was inexorable on this point. The 
whole College of Cardinals, and almost every 
Catholic on the Continent, would as soon adhere 
to a declaration that the Pope was Antichrist, as 
that he was not infallible in the government of the 
Church. Indeed, if he was not so, would the 
vast sums continue to flow into the Roman trea- 
sury, for indulgences, for the release of souls in 
purgatory, or the diminution of the period of their 
probation ? Would countless pilgrims move from 
the extremities of Europe to the Holy City, in 
search of these valuable concessions, if it could 
for a moment be believed that they might be of 
no avail ? And upon what ground can the faith- 
ful who subscribe their money, or the devout, 
who weary themselves in their distant pilgrim- 
ages, be assured of the contrary, but by a firm 
conviction in the infallibility of him to whom they 
apply ? The very formula used by the Popes, — 
" We who, though unworthy, yet are the represen- 
" tatives on earth of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to 
" whomhave been addressed the words to the Apo- 
" stle St. Peter, ' All that you shall bind on earth, 
'' shall be bound in heaven,'" sufficiently prove 
that their pretension is to infaUibility. That the 
British Catholic should think otherwise ; that he 



62 

should abjure the opinion, that princes, excom- 
municated by the Pope and Council, or by any 
other authority, may be deposed or murdered by 
their subjects; or that they should be able to 
absolve him from the oath of allegiance to his 
Sovereign ; that he should deny to the Pope any 
temporal or civil jurisdiction within these realms ; 
that he should swear never to exercise any privi- 
lege to the disturbance of the Protestant religion 
or Government in this kingdom ; — is only a proof 
that he conforms himself to the ancient practice of 
his Church — that he rejects the innovations which 
have been introduced into it — that, like the 
Church of France, he tenders his submission to 
the Roman Pontiff upon those principles of inde- 
pendence which characterized the early establish- 
ment of his faith — that he abjures the doctrine of 
the bull Unum Sanctum, by which Boniface VIII. 
declared, " that the authority of kings was sub- 
'^ servient to the spiritual government of the 
" Popes ;" — that he equally denies the precepts 
of the bull In coena Domini, by which Pius V. 
" excommunicated all heretics, and favourers of 
" heretics ; all persons appealing from decrees or 
'' sentences of Popes to general councils ; all 
" persons who should lay on fresh taxes, or aug- 
" ment the old, without a special Hcence from the 
" Holy See ; all magistrates or judges who should 
'* hinder the priesthood from exercising ecclesias- 



63 

" tical jurisdiction ;" and by the general tenor of 
which the power of princes is overthrown^ their 
empire rendered subservient to the Church, and 
the Pope created Monarch over all the sovereigns 
of the earth: lastly, that he abjures those princi- 
ples which formed the very essence of the Papal 
pretensions during the middle ages, and adhering 
only to the spiritual deference which he believes 
Our Saviour to have commanded towards St. 
Peter and his successors ; looking to these only 
for the comfort he conceives they have been au- 
thorized to afford, he is as firmly an attached 
subject to the state, and as anxious a supporter 
of its independence and supremacy, as any other 
member of the British Empire. 

With this exposition of the faith of the Catho- 
lics of the British Empire, it would be unjust to 
tax them with the profession of any doctrines 
which would render them unworthy of the con- 
fidence of their fellow- subjects, or unfit to take 
their share in the government of the state. The 
political question alone, therefore, — the propriety 
of raising so vast a body of the people^ under 
their peculiar circumstances, to an equality with 
the rest, is the only point which requires to be 
debated. As to the expediency of such a mea- 
sure, no very trifling consolation may be derived 
from the results of a similar one in the new-esta- 
blished kingdom of the Netherlands. If a coun- 



64 

try was to be selected where the spirit of religious 
hostility had raged with the greatest violence, — 
where massacre and blood had most polluted the 
opposing sects of Christians, who had made war 
upon each other, and where, in consequence;, the 
greatest degree of hostility was engendered be- 
tween them, it would be this amalgamated king- 
dom of Holland and the Low Countries. Yet 
the basis of the constitution under which these 
countries have been united, is religious tolera- 
tion. The Catholics and the Protestants are 
alike employed in the service of the State, in the 
Legislature, and in every branch in the admini- 
stration. Has any evil resulted from this ar- 
rangement? Has the peace of society been 
disturbed by theological discussions ? Has the 
tranquillity of the country^ or the security of the 
government, been menaced by the conflicting 
interests of the opposing sects ? It is notorious 
that none of these evils have arisen ; that, on the 
contrary, this kingdom, although formed of ele- 
ments the most opposed to each other, has settled 
down into a state of tranquillity and good order, 
which exceeds what the most sanguine politician 
could have hoped at the period of its formation. 
Compare it with the states of Europe, where a 
despotic rule, both in rehgion and in civil govern- 
ment, has held its sway: look to Naples, to 
Sicily, to Spain ; or to the Roman, the Lombard, 



65 

or the Venetian States. Is there any man who 
will say that revolution is most to be appre- 
hended in the Netherlands ? Is it in that country 
that the government is insecure without the aid 
of foreign bayonets ; that the people are con- 
spiring against their rulers ; that secret societies 
are fomenting anarchy and rebellion? or, does it 
not rather hold out a great example from which 
the advantages of religious toleration and liberal 
civil institutions may be collected ; from whence^ 
in the happiness of the people, and the security 
of the government, the wisdom of concession to 
the wants and prejudices of the governed^ may 
be learnt and appreciated ? Does not the state 
of Ireland appear to call for the adoption of 
similar measures ? Is not that country unfortu- 
nately in the situation of those where the govern- 
ment is insecure without the aid of foreign bay- 
onets ? Has not the vast majority of the people 
a great grievance to complain of? And is it not 
under such circumstances that it is wisdom to 
concede to the wants, if not the prejudices, of the 
governed ? 

But in Ireland there is a difficulty which has 
not existed elsewhere : the whole of the Roman 
Catholic Church property has been confiscated, 
and has long since been disposed of by the 
government. It is true that the Catholic swears 
not to disturb, but, on the contrary, to maintain 

p 



66 

the settlement of that property as it now exists ; 
but it is also necessary that the Papal govern- 
ment should renounce all claim to it. The con- 
duct which that government has pursued in 
similar cases, it will necessarily adhere to in the 
present instance. In the reign of Philip and 
Mary, the Roman Pontiff, through the agency of 
Cardinal Pole, legalized the alienation of the 
temporalities of the Church, as they had been 
effected under Henry VIII. and Edward VI. 
Under Clement XIV., the same line of conduct 
was submitted to, as regarding the property of 
the Jesuits, when their order was abolished. 
Under Buonaparte, the late Pope sanctioned the 
alienation of the Church property, as it had 
been decreed by the revolutionary governments 
throughout France and Italy, and in the whole 
extent of the French empire*. To the same mea- 
sure the Government of Rome would certainly 

* The 1 3th Article of the Convention, signed at Paris on 
the 15th July, 180S, between the French Government and 
his Holiness Pius VII., runs as follows : — " Sa Saintete, pour 
" le bien de la paix et I'heureux retablissement de la religion 
" Catholique, declare que ni elle ni ses successeurs ne trou- 
" bleront en aucune maniere les acquireurs des biens ecclesi- 
" astiques alien^s, et qu'en consequence la propriete de ces 
" memes biens, les droits et revenus y attacht^s, demeureront 
" incommutables en leurs niains ou celles de leurs ayant 
" cause." 



/ 



67 

be disposed to accede in the case of Great 
Britain. The claim on the part of England is 
founded on the title of long possession, and the 
impossibility of restitution. Where, in France^ 
the conduct adopted by Pius VII. was an act of 
policy^ here it is one of necessity ; but along 
with it must be coupled the organization of the 
Catholic priesthood, the relief of the people from 
the heavy charge of its maintenance^ and the set- 
tlement of that body upon principles which will 
secure its loyalty and attachment to the state, 
and its undivided and independent religious ser- 
vices to the followers of its faith. 

The conduct which has been pursued by Rome 
in its different concordats with other countries, 
and particularly with the Protestant States*^ 

* Article the 6 th of the Convention already cited, states — 
" Les eveques avant d'entrer en fonctions, preteront directe- 
" ment entre les mains du Premier Consul le serment 
" de fidelite, qui ^tait en usage avant le changement du 
" gouvernement exprime dans les termes suivans. ' Jejure 
" et promets a Dieu, sur les Saints Evangiles, de garder 
'* obeissance et fidelite au gouvernement etabli par la consti- 
tution de la Republique Francaise ; je promets aussi de 
*' n'avoir aucune intelligence, de n'assister a aucun conseil, de 
" n'entretenir aucune ligne soit au dedans, soit au dehors, 
" qui soit contraire a la tranquilite publique ; et si dans mon 
" Diocese, ou ailleurs, j'apprends qu'il se traine quelque chose 
" au prtijudice de I'etat, je le ferai connoitre au gouverne- 
" ment." 

F 2 



6S 

would chalk out the line by which the British Go- 
vernment might be regulated. Where a diiFerence 
in the situation of the countries required it^ differ- 
ent regulations might be adopted, but the general 
policy would remain the same ; and by this mea- 
sure, coupled with the emancipation of the Catho- 
lic body from the civil disabilities under which 
it has till now been labouring, the whole British 
people would be amalgamated into one body ; 
the rights of all would equally be secured and 
protected ; and the cheering prospect of tranquil- 
lity and happiness would, for the first time, dawn 
upon the hitherto divided and distracted Ireland. 
To many persons these views — these expecta- 
tions of the future — will appear too sanguine ; 
yet they are founded upon the general workings 
of the human breast ; upon the well-established 
principles of its action. But to those who would 
advocate a different system, what prospect of 
amelioration does it hold out ? Can they flatter 
themselves even with a hope that the affairs of 
Ireland will remain stationary ? If such an ex- 
pectation could for a moment be acknowledged 
to be well-founded^ the prospect would not be a 
bright one ; but even that hope it would be a 
folly to indulge in. The Catholics are already 
acting as a body^ and are well acquainted with 
their strength. If they should refuse the payment 
of tithes to the Church, or rents to their Protestant 



69 

landlords, what remedy could be found for the 
evil ? what endless mischief and confusion would 
not be created ? 

When five millions of men are bent upon the 
attainment of an object they believe themselves 
in equity to be entitled to, it is difficult to define 
the extent of the resources they will be able to 
apply to it. Up to the present time^ but with 
open or concealed rebellion constantly in activity, 
the power of England has been able to maintain 
its superiority over the sister country ; but by its 
laws, it protects and develops the increasing 
energy of the enemy it fosters in its bosom. 
That which it could effect against three millions 
of impoverished and divided subjects, it will 
find most difficult, if not impossible, against five 
millions, particularly when actuated by one mind, 
and with augmented means. If the animosity is 
to be kept up, if the boon is not to be ceded, we 
must prepare for the inevitable contest we shall 
have to maintain, by arresting the prosperity of 
Ireland. While she is growing up in wealth, in 
power, and Catholicism, we must look upon her 
as an enemy till her just rights have been con- 
ceded to her ; we must bind her to the ground 
while we still hold her within our shackles. 
Where the means of doing so are to be disco- 
vered^ it would be difficult to say ; but they must 
be founds and found quickly^ or the moment will 



70 

be gone by. She is moving with gigantic strides 
towards influence and ascendancy. The means 
of overtaking and arresting her career are not 
easily to be applied; nor is there a British states- 
man who would demean himself by an attempt 
so unworthy the character of his country. Yet 
it would be madness to build up the power we 
must have to contend against. To be just, then^ 
and generous, is our only policy. In all cases it 
is wisdom ; in the present^ it is necessity. That 
the measure of emancipation^ whenever it is 
seriously proposed^ will meet with great opposi- 
tion^ is unfortunately too true. The resistance it 
has already met with from so many eminent and 
distinguished persons^ cannot (although under 
very different circumstances) be expected to sub- 
side ; and in the public at large, particularly 
where the surrender of a monopoly is in ques- 
tion, what attempt at extensive amelioration v/ill 
not share the same fate ? " II y a des train eurs 
'^ dans la marche des siecies ; les lumi^res memes 
'^ ont leurs d^tracteurs :" and this sentence of an 
acute modern statesman, a profound observer of 
mankind^ is not inapplicable in the circumstances 
of the present case. But where the object to be 
obtained is of primary importance ; when every 
reasoning from analogy must tend to corroborate 
the validity of the grounds upon which it is 
undertaken, it were pusillanimous in those who 



71 

are convinced of its propriety to stop short of 
any legitimate effort towards carrying it into 
effect. 

It has been stated, that the British constitution 
is essentially Protestant, and that so it must be 
preserved ; but, if it is adapted to the people, 
one-fourth of whom are of a different faith, how 
can it in justice be framed to the perpetual exclu- 
sion of that portion? Can it be that the majo- 
rity are to be maintained in every privilege of 
government, in every distinction in the state ; 
and the remainder, while they are adding to the 
common stock of the country, by the cultivation 
of the soil, the improvement of the manufactures, 
the payment of taxes, the maintenance of the 
Protestant Church, while they are defending the 
empire in the army^ and maintaining its ascen- 
dancy by sea, are they to be the ^' hewers of 
wood and the drawers of water,'' and yet be con- 
tented and satisfied? Surely this is what no 
reflecting statesman can expect ; it is a state of 
things which nothing but imperative necessity 
can authorize. That such has existed may be 
admitted hypothetically ; that it does now exist, 
or could be reproduced in the present conforma- 
tion of society, and under the regulations w^hich 
should accompany a change, is what (if the fore- 
going statement is correct) appears to be totally 
inadmissible. 



72 

It is the recollection of the bloody deeds which 
reciprocally sullied and disgraced the religious 
contests of our ancestors — deeds, in which the 
Protestant and Catholic^ and the intermediate 
supremacy of the Sovereign, aUke bore their part 
of infamy^ that now obscures and misleads the 
general mind. If such scenes were to be re- 
newed^ is it the trifling advantage of some dis- 
tant political influence which could affect the 
issue of the struggle? Have not the papal 
armies been driven, like chaff before the wind, 
by Catholic soldiers ? Has not the Pope himself 
been besieged in his capital, chased from his 
dominions, dragged a captive into foreign coun- 
tries^ by troops who prostrated themselves before 
him^ as the representative of our Saviour ? — 
Whence^ then, is the dread that the British 
Catholics, when coequal with the rest of their 
fellov/- subjects, would remain embodied in oppo- 
sition to their sovereign and their country ; would 
range themselves under the banner of a foreign 
potentate, whose temporal authority they deny ; 
and setting at nought the example of their bre- 
thren of every other nation, would support his 
interests at the sacrifice of their own prosperity 
and their country's rights ? Neither is it in the 
nature of mankind to do so, nor could it be the 
policy of the popes to encourage it. The Catho- 
lics, when relieved from the shackles which now 



73 

oppress them, will be influenced by the different 
passions and interests which alike direct and 
guide the rest of their fellow-subjects ; uncon- 
nected, unembodied by such grievances as now 
bind them to each other, they will pursue the 
various objects of their ambition by the different 
paths which seem most likely to secure to them 
the attainment of their desires ; they will seek 
their own in the general prosperity of their 
country. 

That perverted minds should be found amongst 
them, as in every other class of persons, building 
their hopes on anarchy and disturbance^ is unfor- 
tunately but too much to be apprehended. 
Where is the spot on earth so blessed as to be 
without them ? Do they not now exist, and are 
they not backed by the general discontent of five 
millions of the King's subjects? And if the 
cause of this dissatisfaction was removed, would 
not the means of injury be taken from them, and 
their hostility neutralized ? It is upon the basis 
of those laws which separate the great body of 
the people from the state^ that their empire is 
sustained ; take from them this foundation^, and 
their mighty fabric will crumble into dust. 

There is one great and distinguished body in 
the state, transcendent for learning, morality, and 
true religion, pre-eminent in every virtue which 
can adorn mankind, — the clergy of the Church of 



74 

England. It is the duty of this body to defend 
the temporal as well as the spiritual interests of 
the Church committed to its charge ; and if 
danger to either was to be apprehended from the 
emancipation of its Catholic fellow-subjects, 
every sound patriot should go along with it in its 
opposition. But if this measure is coupled with 
additional security to the church estabhshment ; if 
it is calculated to relieve it from the active hos- 
tility of the great body of the people of Ireland ; 
if, in conciliating its rights and immunities, it is 
carried into effect mainly with a view of more 
firmly estabHshing its supremacy, where can any 
further cause for its hostility be discovered ? To 
the tenets of the Protestant faith, of that Church 
which (founded upon the Gospel of Christ, as 
transmitted to us by his Apostles) is established 
in our happy country, the religion of the state, the 
groundwork of its pre-eminence, in true morality 
and in virtue^ there surely can be no apprehen- 
sion of danger from the unfettered toleration of a 
different persuasion. The Church of England 
seeks not by the civil power to establish its 
ascendancy ; the terrors of the inquisition would 
ill accord with the mildness of its precepts. For 
too long a period these principles were obscured 
by the sanguinary laws established through poli- 
tical animosities ; but these laws were opposed 
to the character of that Church which they pre- 



75 

tended to come in aid of ; " the very recollection 
'* of them is a burthen to us." 

The clergy of the Church of England would 
unanimously reject the idea of any compulsatory 
conversion : it is not, therefore, with the view of 
gaining proselytes that they would resist the re- 
moval of the civil disabilities under which the 
Catholics are labouring. They will regret, in 
common with every other patriot, that theirs is 
not the only religion of the people; that a persua- 
sion which they conscientiously believe to be in 
opposition to the doctrines of our Saviour, should 
still hold its sway over a large portion of their 
fellow- subjects; but they know that oppression 
and penal laws (even if they were disposed to 
try them) have been found futile in the attempt 
to change this state of things ; that the Church 
is now established by the laws of the country, 
and that the concession of the civil privileges re- 
quired by the Catholics would in no way bear 
upon it, or affect its continuation. To the attain- 
ment of a substantial guarantee of the temporali- 
ties of their Church, and of the political rights 
and privileges they now enjoy, they can alone 
come forward as a body, to act upon this ques- 
tion. To secure these objects^ alike conducive 
to their comfort and to the prosperity of their 
country, the measure of emancipation is recom- 
mended ; in that spirit it must be carried into 



76 

effect, and with that view it has an undoubted 
claim to the support of this body, which till now 
has opposed it. 

In winding up the arguments which have ap- 
peared to bear upon this part of the subject, it is 
impossible not to notice the reasoning of those 
who are opposed to all concession to the Catho- 
lics, and who state that the great body of the 
professors of that religion are not in reality in- 
terested in the attainment of the objects they are 
laying claim to. But is it in the nature of man, 
or of any set of men, to bear with patience, — to 
have a mark set upon them of jealousy and sus- 
picion, — to be held up to mankind, as less worthy 
subjects, as of an inferior cast, as less sincere 
and devoted patriots ? Would the very persons 
who produce these arguments submit to such a 
distinction, if applied to themselves? Would 
they, if, in the conscious rectitude of their own 
intentions, they were thus branded with oppro- 
brium in the midst of those whom they felt to be 
in no way superior to themselves, submit and be 
silent? And why should the Catholic be sup- 
posed to be less acute in his feelings, less digni- 
fied in the maintenance and vindication of his 
reputation ? Has he not for centuries been cast 
out of the pale of the constitution which he is 
called upon to defend ? While he was weak, and 
in silence groaned beneath his chains, has he not 



77 

been reproached with indifference ? Now that he 
is strong, is he not taunted with a rebellious 
spirit, because he seeks to break these shackles 
which have oppressed him ? Can he, under such 
circumstances, be supposed to be insensible to a 
measure, which is to restore him to an equality 
with his fellow-subjects, and to independence ? 
There surely can be no sentiment in the mind of 
man less liable to be taxed with artifice. 

If the Catholic is not sincere in what he asks 
for, he must be despicable beyond all that has 
ever been known of the very outcasts of society ; 
he must be lost to every sentiment of honour and 
of self-esteem. That this is contrary to the truth, 
is too notorious to be argued upon ; let us there- 
fore hope that in justice, as in policy, he may at 
length be re-adraitted into the society, from which 
he has, for too long a period, been removed. 
May his return to it be accompanied with every 
blessings which a sincere and long-looked-for 
reconciliation can shower down upon a generous 
and loyal people: may the recollection of our 
mutual wrongs be buried in the general satis- 
faction of having granted and received a boon 
which alike is hallowed by justice and gene- 
rosity ! 

It now. Sir, only remains for me to communi- 
cate the letters from Pope Pius VIL, and the late 
King of Naples, which have already been re- 



T8 

ferred to, and which were occasioned by the non- 
presentation of the census and hackney, which is 
claimed by the papal See as a yearly tribute, 
from the Sovereigns of Naples *. These letters 
are of the greatest interest^ as being irrefragable 
proofs both of the pretensions of the Holy See, 
and of the resistance which a most religious Ca- 
tholic Sovereign has felt it his duty to oppose to 
them. They are the evidences from which the 
altered character of that authority, by which the 
world was once bowed down and humbled, may 
clearly be discovered. When the lofty pretensions 
of the Gregories and the Innocents are cited, as 
those by which the policy of the Court of Rome 
is still directed, the language of the King's letter 
will prove how different are the feelings of those 
upon whom these pretensions might be expected 
to have any effect, and by which alone their 
power can be estimated. The civilization of the 
world has crushed that mighty usurpation ; and 
the circle of its influence, even over its most de- 
voted followers, is brought within the limits of 
its spiritual administration. 

The jurisdiction of Rome has nearly receded 
to its ancient prerogatives ; and the able answer 
which is now given, and which is understood to 

* For an account of this right, see the memoir of the 
Papal Investiture, in Appendix G. 



79 

to be from the pen of the Chevalier de Medici, 
(although it was delivered to the Pope in the 
hand-writing of the King,) is the most satisfactory 
illustration of this most important fact. 



With the communication of these documents, I 
close this letter ; and^ with an anxious hope that 
it may not be considered by you as an intrusion^ 
and that it may in some degree elucidate some of 
the important questions of which it treats, I beg 
you to believe me^ 

Sir, 
With the greatest respect^ 

Your most obedient 

Humble Servant, 

The Author. 



London^ February, 1826. 



APPENDIX. 



APPENDIX, 



A. 

MANIFESTS DE L'EMPEREUR JOSEPH*. 

JOSEPH, par la Divine C16mence elu Empereur des 
Romains, toujours Auguste, Roide Germanie, Hongrie, 
Boh me, &c. &c. 

II est connu a tous, et le succes de ces derniers terns 
montrent avec combien de soin, de travail, et de frais, 
nos ennemis ont He chassis d'ltalie, et comme la liberte 
de cette province, que la violence des Francois avait 
envahie, a ete heureusement delivree de leur joug, par 
nos armes victorieuses et celles de nos allies. 

Cependant nous sommes atijourd'hui contraints de 
nous plaindre avec un juste sentiment de douleur, de 
ce que les ministres de la Cour de Rome, ou instigues 
par des autres, ou dans la confiance d'en retirer quelque 
avantage, se sont laisses aller a la hardiesse, au grand 
etonnement de I'univers, et au scandale de la republique 
Cretienne, de meler les armes spirituelles dans des in- 
terets purement mondains, et de rendre public un ^crit 
imprime, de la teneur suivante. 

* Taken from the History of Cardinal Alberoni, published at the 

Hague, 1720. 

G 2 



84 APPENDIX. 

Declaration de Nullitt d'wi certain Accord, fait au 
prejudice du Siege Apostolique et de la Sainte Eglise 
Romaine, touchant les quartiers d'hiver que les troupes 
Alemandes ant pris dans le Buch'c de Parme et 
Plaisance, ^c. 

Ayant fait une attentive consideration sur la dite 
declaration, et sur toutes et cliacune de ses clauses, 
nous ne pouvous n'etre pa^, entr'autres choses, grieve- 
ment emus de ce que la Cour de Rome nous dispute 
hardiment les droits tres-anciens que nous et I'Empire 
Romain avons en Italie, et ceux en particulier que le 
Duche de Milan a sur Parme et Plaisance, sous pretexte 
d'un domaine qu'elle s'attribue sur ces villes ; 6tant 
constant par la pleine foi des historiens, et par les in- 
vestitures que les empereurs Romains nos predecesseurs 
en ont donn^es, et par d'autres actes evidens, que le 
domaine souverain, et de haute majeste sur les susdites 
villes de Parme et de Plaisance ne compete qu'a nous, 
et au sacre empire Romain, et que les legitimes pos- 
sesseurs du Duche de Milan en re9oivent I'investiture, 
Certainement on ne sfauroit montrer que ce domaine 
souverain, direct et de haute majeste, ait jamais ete 
abdique par aucun empereur, ou qu'aucun Due de 
Milan I'ait pu abdiquer, ceder, ou transferer, et beau- 
coup moins que la Cour de Rome I'ait pu validement 
usurper, ni que les Dues de Parme I'ayent pu recon- 
naitre d'elle, Plusieurs livres d'histoire font connaitre, 
et decrivent bien au long, ce que s'est fait sans inter- 
ruption dans cette matiere pour la conservation des 
droits de I'empire. Et les personnes versees dans le 
maniement des affaires publiques, S9avent avec quel 
zele nos predecesseurs et specialement Charles Quint, 



APPENDIX. 85 

de glorieuse memoire, a defendu et proteste de vouloir 
defendre, meme a la fin de sa vie, et par ses dernieres 
paroles, ses droits et ceux de remplre: etant d'ailletirs 
assez clair que les droits sont tellement annexes a 
I'empire, qu'ils ne peuvent en etre separes sans son con- 
sentement, et beaucoup moins contre son gre, par quel- 
ques bulles des Papes que ce soit, et de quelques menaces 
de foudres qu'elles soient rem plies. 

C'a done ete une peine perdue, et digne en quelque 
facon d'etre sifflee, que celle par laquelle les Papes 
allegues dans la dite declaration, se sont voulus arroger 
le jugement dans leur propre cause, et se sont efforces 
d'etablir par le secours de leurs bulles, des droits 
tendans directement au prejudice des Tiers. Et cer- 
tainement on ne pent pas comprendre comme il est entre 
dans I'esprit de la Cour de Rome, d'ecrire que nos 
milices ont envahi les biens de TEglise, scachant, ou 
devant s9avoir que les lieux, dans lesquels elles sont 
entre, sont des fiefs de nous et de I'empire, et qu'on 
pent exiger des alimens et les choses necessaires a la vie 
par un privilege du droit de la nature et des gens, 
meme dans un territoire neutre, alors principalement 
que cette sustentation a pour effet de deffendre celui 
qui la fournit, et de delivrer des dangers et domages 
ulterieurs, dont il est menace. Lesquelles circon- 
stances se trouvant dans le cas present, il n'y a personne 
que ne voit que les canons, les loix, et la raison d'etat 
obligent au soiitien des charges publiques le clerge 
aussi bien que le reste, puisqu'il s'agit de la defense de 
son repos et de sa liberte ; specialement en une pro- 
vince dans laquelle, par coutume ancienne, le commun 
support des charges publiques; dans I'entretien des soldats 



86 APPENDIX, 

est etabli, et que les possessions du clerge de Parme sont 
si amples, qu'ils surpassent quasi la quatrieme par tie 
de tout le Duche. II a done paru que les eclesiastiques 
se rendaient indignes du bonneur de leur etat, en mon- 
trant leur tenacity et avarice au milieu des plus indi- 
gens, et en refusant a notre commissaire imperial, qui 
les en sollicitait, de concourir avec les laics, et de 
payer quoi que ce soit avec eux : en s'opiniatrant dans 
ce refus avec un esprit refractaire, nonobstant que le 
consentennent du Pape pour ces collectes dans la neces- 
site et a I'avantage commun eut ete reserve dans le 
traite conclu par notre dit commissaire * non sans une 
marque illustre de notre respect envers le S. Siege, 
c'est pourquoi ces manieres d'agir et beaucoup d'autres, 
par lesquelles nous avons modere notre conduite, etant 
des temoignages clairs de notre equite et de la maniere 
legitime avec laquelle nous exer9ons notre pouvoir 
imperial, nous ne pouvons concevoir de quelle source 
sont venues ces censures spirituelles si acres et si preci- 
pitees, qu'on a reportees ci-dessus. Nous avons fait ce 
que demandaient de nous nos droits et ceux du S, 
Empire, et nous I'avons fait de la maniere que les con- 
stitutions de I'empire et leur usage nou^ prescrit, et 
qu'a semble demander de nous le respect particulier 
avec lequel nous honorons le pere commun de la cre- 
tientCj quand il se depouille de toute partialite ; comme 
en font foi plusieiirs negociations du Cardinal Grimani 
pour obtenir ce consentement du Pape, quoique su- 
perflu, et pour remontrer Tabus commis dans I'emploi 
trop precipite de i'autorite ecclesiastique. 

Nous remarquons tres bien des exemples de sem- 
blables collectes et charges imposees aux eclesiastiques 



APPENDIX. 87 

par iios ennemis, d'une maniere tout-a-fait clIfFerente, 
quoique ces ennemis n'aient d'autre but que de I'Europe^ 
et ne solent dignes d'aucune faveur. Ausquels cepen- 
dant la Cour de Rome prete aussitot un corisentement, 
souvent meme contre tout droits et montre en cela, 
autant d'indulgence et de connivence, que d'animosite 
et d'oposition,avec laquelle, a la facede tout le monde, 
elle attaque nous, et les droits les plus clairs de I'empire, 
par paroles, ecrits, et actions; ce qui aurait des long 
temps excite en nous des mouvements plus violens, si 
nous n'avions ete retenus par la bonte qui est naturelle 
a notre maison d'Autriche et par d'autres egards envers 
I'Eglise universelle. Et nous voudrions encore faire 
connaitre plus long temps notre patience quoique pro- 
voquee des le commencement de notre gouvernement 
imperial, s'il nous ^tait permis de difFerer davantage a 
defendre nos droits et ceux de Tempi re, et que nous 
pussions excuser cette dilation aupres de Dieu et de la 
posterite, etant obliges a faire ce que nous faisons par 
les loix divines et humaines, par la droite raison, par le 
droit des gens et par les autres principes de la justice et 
de I'equite. 

Dela est, que toutes ces choses considerees, nous, 
souvenant de la capitulation que nous avons juree, et 
des constitutions imperiales, ayant pris les sentimens de 
nos conseillers secrets et de tout le Conseil Imperial 
Aulique, apres avoir consulte au-dehors de tres habiles 
theologiens, et des personnes versees dans la connois- 
sance du droit canon et des loix civiles, pour la defense 
de nos droits et de ceux de I'empire ; 

Nous declarons que I'ecrit rapporte ci-dessus est d'une 
nullite evidente, vaine et d\iucune force, et que I'excom- 



88 APPENDIX. 

munication qui y est exprimee, on "si on pretend qu'il 
y en ait quelqu'une, doit etre reputee pour tout a fait 
invalide, et qu'ellesubsiste d'autant moins qu'il est plus 
evident qu'elle manque des causes essentiellement re- 
quises, s§avoir d'un peche mortel, de contumace dans 
une erreur notable, de la citation precedente des per- 
sonnes, &c. Et que I'ecrit de la Cour de Rome tend, 
non pas a defendre I'heritage du "Seigneur, mais a 
usurper les droits imperiaux sur les Duches de Parme 
et de Plaisance. 

Et comrae selon la pensee des Saints Peres et des Con- 
ciles, les censures sont souvent redoutables, non pas a 
ceux a qui elles sont infligees, mais a ceux qui les infli- 
gent ; nous remettons a Testime et au jugement de 
Dieu, tout-puissant juge de toute chair, et qui sonde les 
coeurs, de meme qu' a celui de tout homme qui ne sera 
point prevenu de passion, ce qu'il faut croire de ces 
larmes des eclesiastiques, qui ont les oreilles bouchees 
pendant que nos ennemis et ceux du Sacre Empire Re- 
main, dans les provinces d'Allemagne et d'ltalie, meme 
dans le domaine des Papes, opriment cruellement et a 
leur fantaisie les ministres de Dieu et I'Eglise ; et com- 
mencent seulement a s'elever contre nous et contre le 
serenissime et tres-puissant Charles III., Roi d'Espagne, 
contre le ro3^aume de Naples, et contre le Due de 
Savoye, lorsque le ciel commence a favoriser notre 
juste cause^ en sorte que le reste de I'ltalie, le royaume 
de Naples et les Pays-Bas ont 6te miraculeusement de- 
livres de leurs cruelles et pesantes mains. 

Nous declarons done, par la teneur de ces presentes, 
a perpetuelle memoire de la chose, et nous protestons 
avec toute I'efficace que nous pouvons, et qu'il en est 



APPENDIX. 89 

besoln, que nous ne pouvons renoncer ou abandonner 
aucun droit, et beaucoup moins le direct et souverain 
domaine sur Parme et Plaisance au Siege Romain ; 
qu'au contrair'e, nous nous reservons et au Sacre Em- 
pire Romain fermement et expressement tous et chacun 
des domaines souverains, qui en ont jamais ii€ usurpes, 
ou sont encore aujourd'liui retenus, de quelque nom 
qu'ils soient appel6s, et nous les declarons notres dans 
la forme et maniere la meilleure qui puisse etre, an- 
nullant, abolissant, et cassant toutes les possessions et 
pretentions illegitimes, excepte celles qui ont ete ex- 
pressement transferees au dit Siege pa,r la bonte et muni- 
ficence des empereurs, declarant toutes les autres pour 
d'autant plus nulles, injustes^ et invalides, qu'il est 
evident que tout ce qu'on pretend d'aliener et de sous- 
traire publiquement, ou en secret, et par autorite propre, 
du domaine de Tempire, est sans aucune force, meme 
tout ce qu'un empereur aurait pu aliener sans y ob- 
server les formes requises. 

Nous nous oposons encore tres solennellement et spe- 
cialement a la pretention qu'a la Cour de Rome, de 
pouvoir, par voie de bulles et de decrets, disposer des 
droits, d'un tiers, et des biens temporels, qui ne lui 
apartiennent point en propre ; les bulles et decrets 
n'etant point valides en ce genre, et ce pouvoir n'etant 
aucunement reconnu de quelque nom ou titre qu'on se 
serve pour cela, et ne pouvant et ne devant obliger, en 
aucune maniere, nous ni I'Empire Romain : parce 
que nous n'admettons et ne pouvons tolerer aucun pou- 
voir dans la Cour de Rome, qui ait la force d'annuller 
ce que nous disposons et ordonnons de droit et en 
vertu de notre autorite Imperiale ; ne doutant nulle- 



90 APPENDIX. 

ment d'etre incontinent avoues et assistes en ceci par 
Tassemblee de tout Tempire en general, et en particu- 
lier de tons les electeurs, princes, etats, vassaux et 
sujets de i'empire, de leur conseil et secours effectifs, 
ou il en sera besoin, et ou la conjoncture des afiaires 
le demandera. 

Done, de nouveau, de propos deliber6, apres un meur 
conseil et avec la plenitude de notre pouvoir imperial, 
nous declarons publiquement par ces presentes, que 
nous nous oposons, nous abolissons, nous cassons, et 
nous protestons comme dessus de la maniere la plus 
solenneile qu'il se peut, contre tout ce qui est exprime 
dans I'ecrit raporte, tant contre la matiere, au pre- 
judice de nos droits, et de ceux du saint Empire Ro- 
main, que contre nos ministres, commissaires, soldats, 
et toutes autres personnes, desquelles I'ecrit peut avoir 
voulu, pu, ou entendu parler. 

Nous defendons de meme a tous et a chacun des ecle- 
siastiques et seculiers vassaux de nous et de I'Empire, a 
nos ministres et sujets, soit dans les terres de I'Eglise, 
soit dans les Dnches de Parme et Plaisance, ou habitant 
quelque part que ce soit, sous peine de notre tres-grieve 
indignation et celle de I'Empire, sous la confiscation de 
tous ses biens, et encore de peine corporelle, d**avoir 
aucun egard en quelque que ce soit a ce qui est con- 
tenu dans I'ecrit raporte ; commandons au contraire le 
plus etroitement que nous pouvons, d'obeir, comme ils 
sont tenus constamraent, a nos coramandemens et a nos 
ordres; leur promettant reciproquement de les faire 
jouir des effets de notre protection et clemence. Devant 
faire avertir pour cet ejffet dans les formes dues le 
Due de Parme, a ce qu'il ne reconnoisse pour les Du- 



APPENDIX. 91 

chez de Parme et de Plaisance aucuii autre domaine que 
le notre et celui de notre dit tres-cher frere le Roi 
d'Espagne, comme etant seuls seigneurs et possesseurs 
leofitimes du Duche de Milan ; etant d'ailleurs evident 
qu'il est tenu de repondre a nous de nos droits et de 
ceux du S. Empire Romain. 

Nous prions enfin le tout puissant et tres-juste Dieu 
de vouloir inspirer a tous une ardeur et sincere amour 
d'une honnete, fidele, et constante paix et concorde, et 
de nous donner la grace de defendre constamment et 
virilement tout ce qui appartient a nous et au Saint 
Empire, protestant de tenir de la divine Majeste, avec 
la plus humble reconnaissance tout ce qui est des droits 
de I'Empereur et de I'Empire, et protestant par cette 
publique declaration, protestation et reservation, que 
nous renouvellons encore, que touchant les biens et 
les droits temporels de I'Empire, personne ne pent rien 
pretendre, occuper, ou retenir legitimement, si ce n'est 
ce qui en a ete aliene avec le consentement expres de 
nos predecesseurs, et en particulier aucun domaine 
temporel du dit empire. Tout ce qui a ete fait au 
contraire, ou repute avoir ete fait, devant etre tenu 
pour non fait, et d'aucune force, et nous y oposant en 
vertu de ce diplome, souscrit de notre main, et muni de 
notre sceau imperial, afin que notre oposition ait des a 
present, et a tous les siecles a venir, toute la solemnite 
et la force qu'elle pent avoir. 

Donne en notre ville de Vienne, ce 26 du mois de 
Juin, I'an 1708. De notre Royaume des Remains le 
19, de celui de Hongrie le 22, et de Bolieme le 24. 

Joseph. 



B. 

ANSWER OF THE EMPRESS MARIA THERESA TO 
POPE CLEMENT XIII. 

His pontliicils litteris respondit Imperatrix, se e pon- 
tificiis litteris maximum percepisse dolorem ; sicut enim 
summopere Pontificem veneratur, ita non potest quin e 
Pontiiicis raoestitia moerorem percipiat ; neminem se 
magis optasse lie evenirent, quae evenerunt, et ne reges 
ingratum aliquid Pontifici facerent; se non recusaturam 
esse, quin adhiberet operam suam pro pace firmanda, si 
religioni aliquod immineret periculum. 

Sed cum religio nullo sit in discrimine, et concerta- 
tiones de juribus ad principatum spectantibus sint, 
quarum unusquisque est solus judex, neque possunt ab 
alio principe discuti, colliget Pontifex, esse valde ar- 
duum et difficile quod Pontifex ab ilia expetit. 

Tamen, ut pro potest, meliore modo Pontificis fiducias 
respondeat,temporum,circumstantiarum,casusque anim- 
adversionumque, quas ipsa habere debet, capitumque 
prsecipuorum regiminis suarum ditionum ratione habita, 
amice adhortabitur principes, ut Pontificis majori do- 
lor i par cant. 

Obsecundet Deus his conatibus, quos Imperatrix 
suscipit, ut ostendat quantum summo Ecclesise Pastori 
adhaereat. Hinc ille saltern colliget, quantum cultu, 
quo ilium prosequitur, quantum studio pacis mo- 
veatur. 

Deum orat, ut Pontifici causas doloris imminuat, ab 
eoque Apostolicam benedictionem petit. 

Datum VindeboncEy die 11 Aug,^ An. 1768. 



c. 

MONSEIGNEUR, 

Je n'ay pu me rendre chez votre Altesse royale 
a la suite de la lettre qu'elle m' a fait I'honneur d'ecrire, 
parce qu'elle est sortie de bonne heure ; ce soir je n'au- 
rais pu Fentretenir, a cause de sa partie : d'ailleurs j'ay 
regarde comme un devoir de mettre par ecrit ce que 
j'ay cru qu'elle me permettrait de lui dire. La matiere 
est si importante, que je dois desirer qu'il reste toujours 
sous les yeux de votre Altesse royalle un temoignage 
fidelle du zele et de la verite avec laquelle j'ay pris la 
liberte de lui parler, et de chercher a lui inspirer ce 
que j'ay cru de sa gloire, et du bien de I'etat, dans les 
operations du gouverneraent. 

Votre Altesse royalle a le pouvoir de changer demain 
les ordres qu'elle pourrait donner aujourdhuy : elle n'a 
qu'a commander ; elle sera obei. La douleur qu'on en 
pourrait quelquefois legitimement ressentir, en suivant 
d'abord avec respect ses ordres, ne sera pas pour son 
compte ; elle ne devra pas meme lui etre desagreable, si 
elle est persuadee qu'on I'aime, et qu'on la venere, 
autant qu'on est attache a sa gloire et a sa dignite. 
Mais elle pourrait trouver reprehensible, qu'on gardat 
le silence, quand on peut avoir quelque chose de juste 
a lui representer. 

Votre Altesse royalle desire que la Junte fasse les 
changemens suivant un plan qu'elle a eu Thonneur de 



94 APPENDIX. 

mettre sous les yeux, et qu'elle a aprouye apres les 
reflexions qu'elle daigna me communiquer. 

Ces changem6ns seroient : — 

1°. Qu'on laissat les Augustins de Parme. 

2°. Qu'on laissat les Grands et les Petits Carmes de 
Parme. 

3^. Qu'on laissat le couvent du Grand St. Fran90is 
de Parme. 

4p, Qu'on laissat les Minimes et les Servites des 
Parme. 

5°. Qu'on Ton otat les Dominicains de Zibello, et 
que Ton conservat ceux de Fontanellato, pour avoir 
soin de ce fameux sanctuaire. 

Voicy, Monseigneur, ce que je vous supplie hum- 
blement d'ecouter. 

I. Augustins de Parme, 

1°. II y a trois couvens de cette religion dans I'Etat, 
et il n'y a pas assez de religieux pour les soutenir. 

2^. Le couvent de Plaisance est considerable, et 
il est attache au Palais, article essentiel pour la con- 
servation de cette eglise, qui dans un cas ou la cour 
pourroit alier a Plaissance et ou une necessite inat- 
tendue se presenter oit, offriroit une habitation pour 
les princes, comme cela est arrive; je crois meme que 
la Princesse d'Armstadt y habite a present. 

3°. La conservation du couvent de Luzzara a paru 
indispensable, parce que dans tout ce territoire et ses 
campagnes, il n'y a qu' une paroisse, et que les eccle- 
siastiques manquent. 

4°. On a pens6 a soustrairele couvent de Parme, par- 
ce qu'il a toujours ete une maison reraplie d' intrigues. 



APPENDIX. 95 

de desordres centre Pesprit de rinstltution religieuse, 
et de tracasseries : cet esprit y subsiste encore. 

6°. Enfin Tabolition des moines dans cette maison, 
n'y fera pas abolir le culte religieux, et la devotion de 
r Ange Custode elle y sera conserv^e, ou par les reli- 
gieux qu'on y mettra, ou d'autre fa^on, ainsi que la 
Soci^te des Dames qui en ferment la congregation. 

II. Grands et Petits Garmes. 

1°. Cet ordre, Monseigneur, est presque tout com- 
pose d'etrangers, c'est sur ce point qu'est principale- 
ment fonde 1' edit celebre que vient de donner votre 
Altesse royalle, edit qui a m6rit6 les eloges de toute 
r Italic et I'admiration de M. de Janucci, qui a ecrit 
avec les louanges les plus flatteuses sur cet article, de 
la part du roy son maitre. 

2°. Ces religieux ne vivent que pour eux, et leurs 
revenus etoient consacres a I'hopital. 

3°. Les vues de votre Altesse royalle ont et6 de 
diminuer, en tout ce qu'il serait possible, la classe nom- 
breuse des religieux, et elle aurait dfeirer^ s'il avait et6 
possible de suppleer a la hierarchie religieuse par la 
classes des pretres s6culiers, si le nombre de ceux cy I'eut 
permis : et en effet c'etait faire le bien de I'etat ; mais 
irrevocablement vous avez prononce, et fulmine votre 
edit centre les etrangers ; toute Tltalie y a applaudi . 
Votre Altesse royalle veut-elle detruire un plan si 
beau, et qui diminuoit. tout d'un coup, si a propos, et 
si considerablement, le nombre des moines dans I'etat? 

III. Le Convent du Grand St. Frangois. 
P. J' oze assurer a votre Altesse royalle, que les 
moines de ce convent ont toujours ete les plus desor- 



96 APPENDIX. 

donnez et les plus scandaleux de I'etat, que c'est, et 
9'a toujours ete un repaire d'hommes tres licentieux. 
Nous en sommes bien informes dans notre secretairerie. 
On ozerait presque dire que ce brigandage est a la 
honte de la religion. 

2°. lis sont au rang des Mendians : mais ils ont de 
quoy vivre, et ne sont pas dans le cas de Mendians na- 
tionnaux qu'il faudra conserver, en fixant par la suite 
leur nombre a proportion du nombre d'ouvriers qu*il 
faudra pour le devoir apostolique. 

3°. Le culte, et la devotion qu'on a pour St. An- 
toine et St. Fran9ois d' Assise, seront continuez dans 
un autre convent, ou Ton fera avec Mification la trans- 
lation des images de ces saints. 

4°. Enfin, Monseigneur, les biens de ce couvent qui 
nourissoient les moines peu reguliers, doit dans le pro- 
jet devenir les secours des pauvres, bien preferables a 
de tels religieux. 

IV. Minimes et Servites de Farms, 

II etoit decide, Monseigneur, que les Minimes de- 
vront Tester a Parme. 

P. Quant aux Servites, il n'y a pas assez de reli- 
gieux pour fournir 1' observance dans les couvens de 
Plaisance et Guastalla, ou il etait decide de transferer 
ces moines. 

2°. II y a une ceremonie de devotion celebree dans 
ce couvent ; c^est la fonction de Notre Dame des Sept 
Douleurs : elle sera conserv6e icy a Parme par les reli- 
geux ou religieuses, qu' on y transferera avec la meme 
edification et le meme eclat. 



APPENDIX. 97 

V. Oter les Dominiquains de Zihello^ conserver ceux 
de Fontanellato, 

P. Les Dominiquains de Zibello seront otez. 

2°. En otant ceux de Fontanellato^ on auroit bien 
pense a conserver dans cette eglise, ou dans le couvent, 
le culte et la devotion qu'on rend a son sanctuaive. 
Elle devait y etre conservee par des ecclesiastiques cha- 
pelains seculiers qu'y auroient mis les eveques : car, 
Monseigneur, c'est pour la Vierge que Ton va a cette 
eglise en pellerinage, ou en devotion, ce n'est pas 
pour les quatre Dominicains qui y sont ; et il a paru a 
la Junte que^ saivant les justes et affectueux principes 
de votre Altesse royalle, et la maKime que saizissent 
aujourdhui tous les etats, il etait juste et preferable 
que les ecclesiastiques seculiers et nationnaux eussent 
le soin de ce sanctuaire. Ce sont autant desecourspour 
vos sujets et leurs families; et plus vous multiplierez, 
Monseigneur^ ces moyens, plus vous encouragerez 
I'ordre de la pr^trise a s''augmenter dans Tetat : elle 
s'elevra dans le sein des families de vos sujets, qui 
seront soutenus ainsi legitimement par les salaires que 
leur fourniront a juste titre les eglises, objet que votre 
Altesse royalle a tant loue. 

Je suis f^che, Monseigneur^ que votre Altesse royalle 
se soit allarme de la precipitation, qu''on a pu lui dire, 
que la junte donnerait a I'execution de ses ordres. Je 
dois lui rendre compte, qu'on n'y procede qu' avec 
mesure. De tout le nombre d'etrangers religieux qui 
sont dans Tetat, on n'a encore signifid qu' a cent trente 
cinq de partir en des terns divert ; on s'est reduit a ce 
petit nombre pour donner lieu et terns aux nationnaux 
qui sont hors de I'etat d'y revenir : sans cette sage pre- 

H 



98 APPENDIX. 

voyance, on auroit donne Tordre general. Cette marclie 
de 135^ distribuee dans tons les couvents, est moderee; 
4 icy, 3 la, 6 autre part, ne derangent en rien le ser- 
vice divin : on y a pens^, ainsi qu'aux fonctious de la 
Semaine Sainte. On a pourvu, et Ton pourvoyera, mal- 
gr^ I'astuce et I'artifiGe des moines, a ce que le service 
divin ne soit interrompu nulle part : pai* exemple, aux 
Dominiquains, ils sont, en comptant les freres, 35 de 
famille : six ont Tordre de partir, il en restera done 
encore suffisament, et enfin on y pourvoyeroit^ Mon- 
seigneur ; car la Junte n'a pu, ni du perdre un moment 
de vue la maniere dont devait etre fait le service divin 
pour votre Altesse royalle, 

Je S9ais, Monseigneur, combien tout cecy intrigue 
les Dominicains: ils ont parle, ^crit^ represente, et fait 
representer par eux ou ceux qui leur sont devoues, mot 
pour mot, ce que votre Altesse royalle me fait I'honneur 
de m'ecrire. C'est un ordre ambitieux, qui va tout met- 
tre en ceuvre pour ^luder les mesures du gouvernement : 
ils ont leurs manoeuvres^ et leurs serviteurs : moy, 
qui ne connais pas les detours quand il s'agit de votre 
service, et de vos ordres, et de votre gloire ; j'oppo- 
seray a toutes ces brigues et des couvens^ et du palais, 
tant que j'y resteray, la fermete, le zele, et la verite. 

Au reste, Monseigneur^ on conserve tous les Men- 
dians; les etrangers ne partiront qu'a mesure que re- 
viendront les nationnaux. En general les offices, les 
messes, les obligations seront conserv^es, et remiDlies 
par ceux qui restent^ ou par ceux qui suppleeront ; et 
en faisant I'avantage de I'etat, et des pauvres, on ne 
negligera pas un moment les devoirs sacrez qu'on 
a a remplir. 



APPENDIX. 99 

Le calcul de ce que produira Texecution de T^dit 
solemnel et si respectable de votre Altesse royal a et^ 
fait. 300 moines ^trangers^ je suppose, qui partiront 
de I'etat, en les calculant a 1700, ou 1800, feront a 
peu pres cinq cent mil livres ; il faudrait difalquer les 
nationaux qui viendront dans Petat. 

Voicy les objets sacrez, Monseigneur, que vous avez 
a remplir pour les pauvres : — 

II faut a I'Hopital, par an. . . 200,000 

II faut songer a en payer qu'il doit plus de 350,000. 

Dans le moment ou je parle, Monseigneur, il n^a pas 

d'argent pour un mois : il est pres a manquer tout a 

I'heure. II y a trois cent malades presque toujours. 

La misere de ce lieu fait quails sont mal servis, et 
abandonnez. II y a la congrue des curez dfournir, elle 
est par an de ..... 150,000 

C'est vous, Monseigneur, qui les payez depuis deux 
ans ; cela n'est pas juste. On a projett6 T^tablisse- 
ment d'un albergo a Parme, d'un semblable a Plaisance; 
quelque lieu de retraite et de refuge pour tant de 
malheureux orphelins, et orphelines abandonn^es. 

Voyez, Monseigneur, je vous en conjure, ou va nous 
precipiter le moindre changement dans le plan que 
vous avez daigne signer, et les ressources que Ton va 
perdre. J'oze vous dire, Monseigneur, que F^difice 
est renvers^, et que ceux qui sont bien aize de voir 
I'humiliation du gouvernement, vont triompher ; mais 
la misere de votre peuple, qui est aifreuse, ne fera qu* 
augmenter. On avait pense, Monseigneur, dans la 
Junte a fixer I'age pour les novices religieuses, et pour 
les professions. Apres y avoir travaille, on vouloit 
proposer a votre Altesse royalle celui de dix neuf ans 

u2 



100 APPENDIX. 

pour la profession ; et de vingt ans pour remission des 
voeux. Enfin, Monseigneur, jamais on n'a tant travaille, 
et medite plus sagement sur un objet qui piit interesser 
davantage Tlionneur de la religion, et du regne de votre 
Altesse royalle ; et j'oze dire que le tribunal n'a rien fait, 
qu'apres avoir tout murement pese, tout combine, 
tout balance, et tout mis sous mes yeux, parcequ'il 
salt la confiance dont vous m'honorez, et que je crois 
n'avoir jamais trahie. 

Monseigneur, j'ay eu, et je n'ay en vue que le bien 
de I'etat et la gloire de votre Altesse royalle. Je crois 
que les operations qu'elle a ordonnees, viennent de 
faire depuis quatre ans le lustre du premier age de 
son gouvernement : si elle daigne se rappeller que Tlta- 
lie et TEurope retentissent des dloges de sa fermete 
et de sa sagesse, elle en tirera la consequence qu'on a 
6te plein d'amour pour sa personne sacr^e, et pour sa 
gloire. Je la supplie de se rappeller que si dans cet 
instant elle varie, ou elle chancelle dans les resolutions 
qu'elle a prises, les ennemis de sa gloire artificieux et 
attentifs vont presumer qu'ils trouveront mil momens 
dans sa vie ou sa faiblesse succedera a sa fermet6. 
Vous suivez une carriere, Monseigneur, ou marclient a 
present tous les princes catholiques, et les rois de votre 
inaison. L'ltalie, qui vous loue, va etre attentive a vos 
demarches. La moindre contrariete, la moindre in- 
consequence, va I'ettonner. Et la populace des moines, 
et leurs suppots qui cherche a vous environner, va pro- 
fitter des moindres instans, ou elle vous verra varier, 
pour tout esperei', et tout entreprendre a la honte du 
gouvernement, qu"'elle sera bien aize de voir Immilie, et 
ponfondu, H y a (juinze jours, Monseigneur, que je 



APPENDIX. 101 

s^als que des religleux avolent assure que vous refuse- 
riez de signer les regleraens qu'on vous presenteraient. 
lis I'esperolent ; ils vouloient done preparer sourdement 
des chemins pour y reussir : j'en ay ete avert! de plus 
d'un endroit. Enfin^ Monseigneur, I'edit de votre Al- 
tesse royalle a eu autant d'^clat que de suffrages, Je la 
supplie de le soutenir. Volcy un moment critique^ ou 
il est important a sa dignitd qu'elle ne mollisse pas un 
instant : cette fermete va faire evanouir les cabales que 
]e vois se former ; si elle cede^ tout est perdu. Votre 
ministre va perdre sa consideration et sa force ; cette 
defaitte ira et courra sourdement de bouclie en bouche : 
les religieux, et tout ce qui est bien aize d'intriguer a 
votre cour, sont aux aguetz des ce moment. Vos mi- 
nistres^ Monseigneur^ dans la vie laborieuse qu'ils 
menent^ ont besoin de tout ce qui peut soutenir leur cou- 
rage pour travailler avec quelque succez a votre gloire^ 
et au bien de I'etat : s'ils sont abandonnez un instant ; 
si votre defiance prendla place de laconfiance que vous 
[eur devez (s'ils la meritent), leur vie sera infortunee ; 
ils auront la confusion de vous etre inutiles. lis voyent 
approclier le moment ou tout va s'unir, et se conjurer 
contre eux : que leur resterait-il a faire, Monseigneur ? 
une seule demarche ; celle de se jetter a vos pieds ; de 
vous demander la permission de s'doigner pour n'etre 
pas les temoins, et peut-etre Tobjet de la persecution 
publique ; et aller dans un coin, meler a leur douleur 
leurs vceux pour la conservation des jours precieux de 
votre Altesse royalle. 

Je suis, avec un profond respect, Monseigneur, de 
votre Altesse royalle tres humble et tres soumis et fidele 
serviteur, et sujet, Du Tillot. 

Parme, ce5 Mars, 1769. 



102 APPENDIX. 

P. S, Je prie votre Altesse royalle de lire avec in- 
dulgence un ecrit fait tres a la hate. Elle a la bonte 
de me dire qu'elle a instruit Monsieur de Keratio de ce 
qu'elle me faisait I'honneur dem'ecrire. Si elle daigne 
lui montrerce que je prends la liberte de lui repondre, 
je crois qu'il y trouvera le langage de I'amour, du 
respect, et de la verite, et qu'il lui parlera lui-meme ce 
langage. 

Je suis bien aize de la grace que V. A. R. lui a fait 
obtenir. Je crois qu'il est bien que demain V. A* R. 
le confie a M. de Revilla avant que ce soit public. 

Au reste, Monseigneur, j'executeray vos ordres 
aussitot que vous aurez lu mon memoire, si vous n'en 
estes pas content *. 

* The above letter is preserved in a Gollection of papers beloug-- 
ing to Bodoni. 



(Copia.) 

Beatissimo Padre» 

Ero io nella mla tenera eta quando accadettero 
le dissensioni fra la corte di Roma, e quella di Parma, 
le quali obbligarono i miei grandi parenti, i miei 
amorosi Padri, i miei natural! protettori, a diraos- 
trarsi tali per contenere, e sedare il fuoco, che per 
disavventura erasi acceso contro le vere e sante in- 
tenzioni del Romano Pontefice, di cui lo Spirito 
Santo fece Vostra Santita degnissimo successore. Mi 
ricordo, che non ostante i miei pochi anni, non fui 
insensibile a quei disgusti, e con la eta e andato cres- 
cendo il mio sentimento ; molto piu pero con le prove 
che tengo, che V. B. mi ama paternamente, e s'in- 
teressa di cuore ne' miei beni spirituali, e temporal!, 
ed in fine colle sue estimabili dimostrazioni, che mi as- 
sicurano disapprovarsi da Vostra Santita, nel suo retto 
e pacifico animo, la condotta, che produsse cotanto sen- 
sibili ejBfetti; anelando il suo spirito di pace, edi paterna 
carita all' unione ed intima concordia con quelli che 
hanno 1' onore di essere suoi figlj piu distinti e fedeli. 
Io so dal mio ministro, il Marchese De Llano, quanto 
giubilo mostro Vostra Santita con la notizia di avermi 
il cielo dato un successore, e con 1' ultima notoria grazia 
da me dovuta a' gloriosi miei avolo e zio ; e mi costa 
die V. B. scrisse loro, aggradendola come propria. 
Vostra Santita mi ha data di poi una dimostrazione 
preziosa nelle sue particolarita ; quali maggiori prove 
di considerazione, e di soddisfazione insieme tra padre e 

* These letters between the Duke Ferdinand and the Pope are 
taken from a work published at Panna, in 1774. 



104 



APPENDIX. 



figlio! Quindi, Santo Padre, tutto questo ha com - 
mosso il mio cuore, e pieno di gratitudine e di confi- 
denza iie' sentimeiiti pacific! di V. B., mi sono fatto 
animo a dare un passo, che desidero sia bene ammesso 
da miei grandi parenti, che gradisca a V. B., e mi 
mostri a' suoi occhi riconoscente ed amoroso figliuolo; 
acciocche con maggiore facilita nella corrispondenza, 
mi continui le sue grazie, e le sue benedizioni. Scrivo 
a S. M. Cattolica, a S. M. Cristianissima, a S. M. Si- 
ciliana, supplicandole per 1' amore che mi portano, di 
voler generosamente ritornare all' antico stato quelli di 
Avignone, Benevento, e Ponte Corvo,affinchesi dimen- 
tichino affatto i menzionati disgusti, dandosi per soddis- 
fatti di tante dimostrazioni di afFetto, che io debbo a 
Vostra Santita, e delle disposizioni del saggio suo go- 
verno, incamminate a regolare pacificamente tutte le 
cose con la disapprovazione delle passate inquietudini, 
e di quanto si opponga a questo sistema proprio del 
padre comune dei Cristiani. Spero che riceveran bene 
i tre monarca, e che gradira loro insieme la mia in- 
tercessione, al solo titolo di essere io stato V occasione 
del loro giusto impegno. Io saro fejice, se vi adem- 
pianole mie intenzioni ; per Io che imploro da V. Bea- 
titudine la sua santissima benedizione sopra di quelle, 
e sopra quante altre mi conducano da questa alia vita 
eterna. Nostro Signore guardi la santissima persona di 
vostra beatitudine al buono e prospero reggimento 
della sua universale chiesa. Parma, 6 9bre. 1773. 
Di Vostra Santita, Umilissimo e divotissimo figlio, che 
bacia i suoi santi piedi e mani. 

(Segnati) Ferdinando. 

Giuseppe Agostino de Llano. 



APPENDIX. 



105 



Dilectissirao in Cliristo Filio 
nostro, Ferdinando, Regio 
Hispaniarum Infanti, 

Clemens Papa XIV. 

Dilectissime in Christo 
Fill noster, salutem et apos- 
tolicam benedictionem. In- 
credibilem sane laetitiam 
coepimus ex amantissimis 
litteris tuis, omnique in nos 
amoris, pietatis, ac filialis 
observantise significatione 
plenissimis. Cum te semper 
miriiice, ac singulariter di- 
lexerimus, tuasque res omnes 
perinde ac nostras paterno 
sumrao studio prosequuti 
simus, nihil profecto accidere 
nobis jucundius a te potuit, 
quam hujusmodi amori in te 
nostro eam nunc a te reddi 
vicem, qua eximia tua in nos 
voluntas prseclare perspicue- 
que constare posset. 



Plurima ssepe, clarissima- 
que ad nos ejusdem tui in 
nos animi delata sunt indicia, 
quibus magis in dies ad amo- 



Al Dilettissimo nostro Fi- 
gliuolo in Cristo, Ferdi- 
nando, Reale Infante di 
Spagna, 
Clemente Papa XIV. 

Dilettissimo Figliuol nos- 
tro in Cristo, salute, edapos- 
tolica benedizione. Supe- 
riore ad ogni credere si e il 
giubilo di che ci ha Tanimo 
ricolmato Taffettuosissima 
vostra lettera, ripiena delle 
piu significanti maniere di 
amore, di tenerezza, e di fi- 
liale considerazione per noi. 
Avendovi noi amato sempre 
con parzialissimo, e singolare 
attaccamento, e con paterna 
somma premura in tutte le 
cose vostre essendoci inte- 
ressati egualmente, che se 
nostre fossero state ; Noi al 
certo non potevamo aspet- 
tarci da voi niente di piu 
gradito, quanto il rendere, 
siccome ora fate, al nostro 
amore un contraccambio, che 
appalesi ben chiaro il grande 
affetto Yostro verso di noi. 

Sovente di cosi grande 
vostro affetto per noi.avuti 
abbiamo argomenti moltis- 
simi, e chiarissimi, i quali 



106 



APPENDIX. 



rem tui, tuaeque pietatis, ac 
religionis laudem accendere- 
mur. Delata etiam nostrse 
ad te invicem gaudemus exi- 
mise caritatis testimonia, vel 
cum filius tibi in tanta domo 
tuarum virtutum futurus 
haeres natus esset, vel cum 
depositas esse simultates 
omnes, teque in gloriosissi- 
morum regum avi, ac patrui, 
parentum pene tuorum, gra- 
tiam receptum fuisse,prolixis 
ad eos scriptis litteris, tuique 
studiosissimis, gratulemur. 



Quae cum tibi nostras in te 
benevolentise magnitude per- 
specta fuerit, cum in nos, ac 
sanctamhanc Sedem accedere 
pietatis tuae cumulum volu- 
isti, ut quidquam opportu- 
nius, nobisque acceptius ne 
excogitari quidem potuerit. 
Interponere te scribis apud 
eosdem carissimos in Christo 
filios nostros, avum, patruum, 



ogni volta piu ci hanno in- 
fiammati nelP amarvi, e nell' 
cncomiare la pieta vostra, 
e la vostra religione. Pro- 
viamo altresi del compiaci- 
mento per essere giunte a vol 
pure testimonianze recipro- 
che della nostra singolare 
ajffezione, o quando nuovo 
germoglio della vostra sub- 
lime schiatta vi nacque, 
futuro erede delle vostre 
virtu, o quando avvanzammo 
le nostre congratulazioni per 
essersi tolti di mezzo tutti i 
dissapori, e per avervi rista- 
bilito nella lor grazia i due 
re gloriosissimi, I'avo, e ii 
zio, cui poco mancaper es- 
servi del tutto padri, e ai 
quali noi scrivemmo copiose 
lettere, e parzialissime alia 
vostra persona. 

Questa grande nostra be- 
nevolenza verso di voi essen- 
dovi ben conosciuta, voi 
voleste dare un tal colmo a 
quella venerazione, colla 
quale riguardate noi, e questa 
Santa Sede, che non era pos- 
sibile r immaginare cosa piu 
opportuna, e di maggior 
nostro aggradimento. Ci 
fate intendere di esservi in- 



APPENDIX. 



107 



et patruelum tuura, prsestan- 
tissimos reges, plurima, atqiie 
eximia officia, ut offensionum 
omnium, quse ante nostrum 
pontificatum inciderunt, 

quamquam ex animis sublatse 
eae omnino sint, reliquiae 
etiam omnes, ac vestigia to] - 
lerentur, ditionesque proinde 
Avenionis, Beneventi, et 
Pontis-Corvi ad pristinam 
ejusdem Sanctse Sedis pos- 
sessionem redirent. Majores 
quidem, ac uberiores causae, 
cur immortales tibi gratias 
habeamus, nullae nobis esse 
possunt. 



Prseclarti profecto nosti, 
quantonos pacis et concordiae 
desiderio teneamur, praeser- 
tim cum Borbonicae Domus 
amplissimis Regibus, quorum 
summainnos, in hanc B.Petri 
Catbedram, in Ecclesiam uni- 
versam meritsi, extiterunt ; 
neque jam nobis uUa inesse 
dubitatio poterat, quin ipsis 
pro eorum religione, ac sa- 
pientia, illi nostraeApostolico 
muneri convenienti consen- 
sionis et concordiae cupidi- 



terposto con molte ed efficaci 
maniere appresso dei nostri 
figliuoli in Cristo carissimi, 
I'avo^ il zio, e il vostro fratel 
cugino, prestantissimi re, af- 
finche di tutte le discordie, 
che sono accadute prima del 
nostro pontificato, sebbene 
gia sieno affatto cancellate 
dagli animi, se ne togliessero 
tutte le reliquie, e tutti i 
vestigj ; e tornassero quindi i 
dominj d'Avignone, di Bene- 
vento, e di Ponte Corvo all' 
antico possesso della mede- 
sima Santa Sede. Noi non 
possiamo incontrare ne piu 
fosti, ne piii ample cagioni 
per rendervi grazie immor- 
tali. 

Avete voiconosciuto benis- 
simo quanto sia il desiderio, 
che abbiamo della pace e della 
Concordia ; specialmente co- 
gli amplissimi Re della Casa 
Borbonica, gloriosi per som- 
mi meriti fatti con Noi, 
con questa Cattedra di San 
Pietro, e con tutta la Chiesa ; 
ne poterarao dubitare in 
conto alcuno, che essi, attesa 
la loro religione. e lasaviezza 
lorO; non fossero per corri- 
spondere con premura, con 



108 



APPENDIX. 



tati, suo essent studio, opera 
animique magnitudine re- 
sponsuri. 



Sed nunc, dilectissime in 
Christo Fili noster, tanto 
certius in piilcherrimam banc 
spem ingredimur, quanto te 
magis ab illis, et ob necessi- 
tudinem, et ob Regias vir- 
tutes tuas diligi perspicimus. 
Hsec ipsa etiam officia fore, 
vel idcirco iis jucundissiraa 
certi sumus, quod tuse laudis 
ex hujusmodi egregio facto 
profectae sint percupidi ; pro- 
inde libentissimo animo con- 
sensuros inter se putamus, 
ut nimirum, unde simulta- 
tum occasio extiterit, inde 
concordiae etiam initia a tua 
singulari virtute deducta ex- 
istant. 



Nos profecto ea esse tua 
inS. banc Sedemmerita fate- 
mur, ut gratissimas babituri 
simus opportunitates omnes, 
quibus tibi singularis paternse 



efticacia, e con grandezza 
d' animo a quella brama di 
consentimento e di buona 
intelligenza, cbe si conviene 
air Apostolico nostro mini- 
stero. 

Ora pero, dilettissimo 
Figliulo in Cristo, entriamo 
con tanto maggiore sicurezza 
inquesta bellissima speranza, 
quanto sappiam di certo es- 
sere voi da loro amato non 
meno in vista della congiun- 
zione di sangue, cbe delle 
vostre virtu Reali. Siamo 
eziandio sicuri cbe questa 
medesima vostra interposi- 
zione sia per riuscir loro al 
sommo gradita ; essendo e- 
glino bramosissimi di ve- 
dervi esaltato per quella lode 
die nasce da cosi segnalata 
impresa; e siamo percio d' 
avviso, cbe essi cospireranno 
a gara nel fare, cbe d' onde 
ebben origine le dissension! 
indi abbia principio la pace 
richiamata dalla vostra sin- 
golare virtu. 

Vi confessiamo in vero 
essere tali i vostrimeriti con 
questa S. Sede, cbe avremo 
sempre mai in conto di gra- 
tissime tutte le opportunity, 



APPENDIX. 



109 



nostrse caritatis sensus com- 
probemus. Interim Deum 
O.M. precamur, ut suae gra- 
tiae benignitate virtutes tuas 
magis in dies augeat, teque 
veree felicitatis et glorise, 
quae nunquam defectura sit, 
compotem reddat ; in cujus 
auspicium ac pignus, Aposto- 
licam Benedictionem tibi, di- 
lectissime in Cliristo Fili nos- 
ter, tuae prsestantissimae con- 
jugi, vestroque recens nato 
filio, ac universae tuae Regiae 
Domui, intimo paterni cordis 
sensu amantissime imperti- 
mur. 



Datum Romae apud Sanc- 
tam Mariam Majorem, sub 
annulo Piscatoris, die 2 De- 
cembris, 1773. Pontificatus 
nostri anno quinto. 

(Subscriptus) 

Benedictus Staij. 



nelle quali s' abbia da venire 
a prova con voi da' senti- 
menti del nostro singolare 
paterno amore. Intanto pre- 
ghiamo Iddio Ottimo Massi- 
mo ad accrescere viemag- 
giormente le virtu vostre 
coUa benignita della sua 
grazia, e a farvi parte di una 
vera felicita, e di una gloria, 
clie non sia per mancare 
giammai : siane auspizio e 
pegno V Apostolica Benedi- 
zione, che col piu intimo 
affetto del paterno cuore dia- 
mo amorosissimamente a voi, 
Dilettissimo Figliuolo in 
Cristo, alia prestantissima 
vostra Consorte, al vostro 
neonato Figliuolo, e a tutta 
la Real vostra famiglia. 

Dato in Roma appresso 
Santa Maria Maggiore, sug- 
gellato colPanello delPisca- 
tore li 2 Dicembre, 1773. 
Del Pontificato nostro, V 
anno quinto. 
(Soscritto) 

Benedetto Staij. 



110 



APPENDIX. 



Dilectissimo in Christo Filio 
Nostro Ferdinando, Regio 
Hispaniarum Infanti, 

Clemens Papa XIV. 

Dilectissime in Christo Fill 
Noster, salutem et Apostoli- 
cam Benedictionem. Accep- 
tis amantissimis litteris tuis, 
quibus plurimam a te positam 
esse operam nunciasti cum 
conjunctissimis tibi Borboniis 
Regibus, et carissimis in 
Christo Filiis Nostris, ut 
pristina Avenionis, Comita- 
tus Venaissini, Beneventi, et 
PontisCorvi possessio S. huic 
Sedi restitueretur, statim 
tibi, Dilectissime in Christo 
Fili Noster, eas reddere gra- 
tias voluimus, quas deberi 
tibi ob eximia studia tua, ac 
singularia in nos Regii tui 
animi indicia arbitrati su- 
mus. 



Nunc vero cum Divino 
beneficio, ac praestantissimo- 
runi Regum magnanimitate, 
illse S. Sedis ditiones jam ad 
nos delatse sint, iterum nos- 



Al Dilettissimo Nostro Fi- 
gliuolo in Cristo, Ferdi- 
nando, Reale Infanta di 
Spagna, 
Clemente Papa XIV. 

Dilettissimo Figliulo No- 
stro in Cristo, Salute, ed 
Apostolica Benedizione. Ri- 
cevuta 1' amorevolissima vo- 
stra lettera, nella quale ci 
avvisaste di esservi grande- 
mente adoperato appresso 
de' Borbonici Re,strettissimi 
vostri parenti, e nostri fi- 
gliuoli in Cristo carissimi, 
affinche fosse restituito a 
questa S. Sede 1' antico pos- 
sesso d' Avignone, della 
Contea Venesina, di Bene- 
vento, e di Ponte Corvo, 
subitamente, Dilettissimo fi- 
gliulo in Cristo, abbiamo 
voluto rendervi quelle grazie, 
delie quali ci siamo stimati 
in debito con voi pel grande 
impegno, che vi siete assun- 
to, e per le singolari testi- 
monianze, che ci avete date 
deir animo vostro Reale. 

Ma ora che per Divina 
beneficenza, e per la magna- 
nimita de' prestantissimi Re, 
ci sono gia restituiti que* 
Dominj della S. Sede ; repli- 



APPENDIX. 



Ill 



tras ad te damus litteras, om- 
niaque summa in te gratissi- 
mse voluntatis officia reno- 
vamus'. 

Gaudemus sane illorum 
aequitate ac virtute salvum 
atque incolume Apostolicae 
Sedis jus esse prsestitum: sed 
hoc gaudium nostrum ek 
etiam causa augetur, quod 
tuos apud illos preces va- 
luisse plurimum, et optatis- 
simos habuisse exitus, videa- 
mus. De quo et tibi majo- 
rem in modum gratulamur, 
et nos semper memores futu- 
ros pollicemur liujus egregii 
in nos animi tui, cujus tarn 
magni,tamque prseclari no- 
bis fructus extiterunt. 



Cum tantam itaque virtu- 
tem, pietatemque erga nos 
tuam agnoscamus facile tibi 
persuadere potes, parem tuis 
excellentibus meritis pater- 
nam esse,quate complectimur 
caritatem, quaque tibi omnia 
quaecumque ad veram felici- 
tatem, et gloriam valere pos- 
sunt, exoptamus. 



candovi le nostre lettere, vi 
rinoviamo tutte le piii grandi 
obbligazioni del nostro gra- 
tissimo cuore. 

Godiamo invero, che il 
diritto della Sede Apostolica 
merce la loro equita, e la virtii 
loro sia rimasto salvo ed il- 
leso : ma questo nostro gau- 
dio si rende ancor maggiore 
dalvedere, cbe appresso loro 
le vostre preghiere sono state 
di un efficacissimo valore, ed 
hanno sortito un esito deside- 
ratissimo. Per la qual cosa 
ci congratuliamo con voi in 
ogni miglior maniera, e yi 
promettiamo di ricordarci 
sempre di questa insigne vo- 
stra afFezione verso di noi, 
dalla quale ne abbiam ripor- 
tati cosi grandi, e cosi seg- 
naiati vantaggi. 

Riconoscendo noi dunque 
tanta virtu, e tant' affezion 
vostra verso di noi, vi potete 
facilmente persuadere, di- 
lettissimo nostro figluolo in 
Cristo, che sia pari ai vo- 
stri eccellenti meriti quell a 
paterna tenereza, colla quale 
vi riguardiamo, e vi bra- 
miamo ogni cosa, che possa 
cospirare a rendervi vera- 
mente felice e glorioso. 



112 



APPENDIX. 



Nostros liujusmodi de te 
sensus jam turn cumliic esset, 
coram a nobis intellexit di- 
lectus filius nobilis vir Mar- 
cliio Llano, quern plurimum 
diligimus et ob perspectas 
virtutes suas, et potissimum 
ob earn quam tibi navat egre- 
giam operam. 

Quod de nobis ille lucu- 
lenter tibi testabitur, id ut 
magis nunc magisque confir- 
memus, Deum O. M. enixe 
precamur, ut coelestium mu- 
nerum largitate prosequi ve- 
lit apostolicam benedictio- 
nem, quam tibi, dilectissime 
in Christo fili noster, ac prae- 
stantissimae regise familise 
tuse araantissime impertimur. 

Datum Romse apud Sanc- 
tam ^Mariam Majorem, 
sub Annulo Piscatoris, 
die 30 Decembris, 1773, 
Pontificatus nostri anno 
quinto. 

(Subscriptus) 

Benedictus Staij. 



Questi sentimenti, die nu- 
triamo per voi, sin da quando 
si trovo quij'gl' intese da Noi 
il diletto figliulo nobile Mar- 
chese Llano, che amiamo as- 
saissimo e per le sue conos- 
ciute virtu, e sopra tutto per 
I'ottimo servigio, che a voi 
presta. 

Per confermare ogni volta 
piu cio, che egli vi testifi- 
chera chiaramente, preghia- 
mo con tutto V ardore Iddio 
Ottimo Massimo a secondare 
colla efFusione de' suoi doni 
celesti V apostolica benedi- 
zione, che diamo amorosissi- 
mamente a voi dilettissimo 
iigliuolo in Cristo, e alia vo- 
stra prestantissima reale fa- 
miglia. 

Dato in Roma, appresso 
Santa Maria Maggiore, 
suggellato coir Anello 
del Pescatore, il 30 Di- 
cembre, 1773 ; del Pon- 
tificato nostro 1' anno 
quinto. 
(Sottoscritto) 

Benedetto Staij. 



U 



APPENDIX. 113 



Beatissimo Padre, 

Quando stavo per Iscrivere a vostra Santlta per 
informarla della favorevole benigna risposta, che 
avevo riportata dai tre monarca di Francia, Spagna, 
e Napoli, miei amati Avolo, Zio, Cugiiio, relativa- 
mente alia mia rispettosa intercessione, loro chiedendo, 
per r amore di Padri, che dessero a V. B. la conso- 
lazione di veder restituiti gli stati di Avignone, Bene- 
vento, e Ponte Corvo al precedente possesso della 
S. Sede, in quel punto stesso mi giunge il secondo 
amoroso breve di vostra Santita, dei 30 Dicembre 
deir amio prossimo passato, ripetendomi, consapevole 
gia del felice esito de' miei uffizj, le grazie, clie da prima 
mi anticipo per essi in altro breve dei 2 del medesimo 
mese. Come si e riempiuto di giubilo il mio cuore 
con questo fortunato successO;, con si pronta generosa 
condiscendenza de' miei venerati dilettissimi parenti, 
con la somma bonta del Padre comune de' Fedeli in 
estimare, ed aggradire un' ossequio del minore de' suoi 
Figlj ! Ottengo per questo un principio di anno il piu 
felice, empiendomi di gioja il pensare, clie per lo stesso 
motivo lo avra incominciato vostra Santita con soddis- 
fazione, ed allegrezza, e che verra segnalato in quelli 
del suo trionfante glorioso Pontiiicato, che il Cielo 
voglia prolungare a misura de' miei voti, e desiderj. 
Adesso non solamente m' interesso nella sua durazione 
comeunode' Principi Cattolici,raa ancora come uno degli 
eletti da V. B. per essere distinto ne' suoi favori e 
grazie. Cosi mi ha assicurato il mio ministro il 
Marchese de Llano, che ebbe la sorte di baciare i suoi 
santi piedi, e di udirlo dalla sua bocca sacrosanta; 

I 



114 



APPENDIX. 



ed i fatti posteriori hanno confermata la verita della 
sua relazione, quantunque non abbisognasse di prove 
ladi luinotoria onoratezza, e capacita ; per le cui qua- 
lit a riporta la commemorazione oiiorevole che fa vostra 
Beatitudine della sua persona, e per le quali, e per li 
suoi buoni servigj, io ne avro sempre la piu grata 
memoria. Ripeto da ultimo a vostra Santita, che 
aspirero finche viva a conservarmi il suo pateriio amore, 
e benevolenza ; per rendermi degno dei celesti doni, 
che debbono ricadere sopra di me, e della mia faraiglia, 
mediante la sua santa benedizione, che nuovamente 
imploro. Nostro Signore guardi la santissima persona 
di vostra Beatitudine al buono e prospero reggimento 
della sua Universale Chiesa. 

Di vostra Beatitudine umilissim.o e divotissimo figlio, 
che bacia i suoi santi piedi, e mani, 

(Segnati) Ferdinando. 

Giuseppe Agostino De Llano. 

JParma^ 6 Gennajo, 1774. 



{Translation.) 

Holy Father, 

I was still in my infancy when the dissensions 
between the courts of Rome and of Parma took place, 
which obliged my near relations, my affectionate pa- 
rents^ my natural protectors, to shew themselves such 
in order to quench the flame which had unfortunately 
arisen against the true and holy intentions of the Roman 
Pontiff, of whom the Holy Ghost has made your Ho- 
liness the worthy successor. I remember that, not- 
withstanding my tender years, I was not insensible to 
those afflictions, and with my age those feelings have 
increased; and so much 'the more, from the proofs I pos- 
sess that your Holiness loves me as a father, and takes a 
heartfelt interest in my spiritual and temporal welfare ; 
and also from the estimable proofs you have given me, 
assuring me how much your Holiness disapproves, in 
your upright and pacific mind, the conduct which 
produced such sensible effects: whilst you, with the 
spirit of peace and paternal charity, long for the union 
and perfect concord of those that have the honour to 
be your most distinguished and faithful sons. I know 
from my minister, the Marquis de Llano, what joy 
your Holiness testified upon hearing that heaven had 
given me a successor ; and at the last eminent favour 
conferred upon m^ by my illustrious grandfather and 

i2 



116 APPENDIX. 

uncle ; and I know that your Holiness wrote to them, 
expressing the same pleasure as if the favour had 
been personal to yourself. Your Holiness has since 
privately given me a more estimable testimony : — what 
greater proofs of consideration and satisfaction can 
exist between father and son ? All this, Holy Father, 
has touched my heart, and, full of gratitude and of 
confidence in the pacific sentiments of your Holiness, I 
have resolved to take a step which, I trust, will be well 
received by my relations, will be pleasing to your Ho- 
liness, and will make me appear in your eyes a grateful 
and affectionate son, and that, with greater facility of 
correspondence, you will continue to me your favour, 
and your blessing. I write to his Catholic Majesty, to 
his most Christian Majesty, and to his Sicilian Majesty, 
entreating them, by the love they bear me, generously 
to restore to the ancient state those of Avignon, Bene- 
vento, and Pontecorvo, in order that the above-men- 
tioned dissensions maybe forgotten, shewing themselves 
satisfied with the many marks of affection which I have 
received from your Holiness, and with the sage dispo- 
sitions of your government, which tends peaceably to 
regulate all things, and at the same time to disapprove 
past disturbances, and every thing which is opposed to 
a system, which is truly that of the common father 
of Christians. I hope that the three monarchs will 
listen to and accept with pleasure my intercession, if 
it be solely upon the ground that I was the instigation 
of so just an undertaking. I shall be happy if they 
agree to my intentions, upon which I implore your 
holy benediction, as well as upon all others which may 
conduct me to eternal life. May our Lord preserve 



' APPENDIX. 117 

the sacred person of your Holiness for the prosperous 
and ffood o-overnment of his universal church. 

Your Holiness's most devoted son, who kisses your 
holy feet and hands, 

(Signed) Ferdinand. 

Joseph Augustin de Llano. 

Farma, ^th Oct, 1773. 



To Our Most Beloved Son in Christ, Ferdinand, 
Royal Infant of Spain, Fope Clement the I4:th, 

Most beloved Son in Christ, 

We salute you, and give you our apostolic 
benediction. Beyond all belief is the joy with which 
our soul is filled by your most affectionate letter, 
replete with the most energetic expressions of at- 
tachment, of tenderness, and of filial consideration 
towards us. Having always loved you with singular 
partiality, and having, with fatherly affection, taken 
in all your concerns the same tender interest as if 
they were our own, we could not certainly expect from 
you any thing more pleasing to us than such a return 
as you make to our love, clearly proving your great 
affection towards us. We have often been made sen- 
sible of your great affection for us, and have thence 
been encouraged to love you more and more, and to 
praise your piety and religion. We are also happy 
that you should have received reciprocal testimony of 
our singular attachment, both upon the birth of a new 
branch from your illustrious stem, future heir of your 



118 APPENDIX. 

virtues, and also when we offered our congi'atulation 
upon the cessation of all disagreement, and upon your 
again being admitted to the good graces of the two 
illustrious kings^ your grandfather and uncle, who are 
ahiiost fathers to you, and to whom we wrote long 
letters, expressing our partiality to your person. Being 
so well persuaded of our great fonaness for you, you 
have desired to give such a proof of your veneration for 
us, that it is not possible to imagine any thing more 
opportune or more thoroughly agreeable to us. 

You inform us, that you have, in the most efficacious 
manner, interposed your offices with our beloved sons 
in Christ, the potent kings, your grandfather, your 
uncle, and cousin, in order that the dissensions which 
took place before our Pontificate, although already 
forgotten, should have every vestige of their existence 
removed ; and therefore that the dominion of Avignon, 
Benevento, and Pontecorvo should return to the an- 
cient possession of the Holy See. We never can have 
greater or more urgent reasons to render to you im- 
mortal thanks. You have well judged how great is 
our desire of peace and of concord, especially with 
those great monarchs of the house of Bourbon, illus- 
trious for many meritorious acts towards us, towards 
this chair of St. Peter, and towards the whole church; 
nor could we ever doubt but that they, with their 
wisdom and religious feelings, would coincide most 
eagerly and generously with that desire of peace and 
good understanding, which is natural to our apostolic 
ministry. 

Now, beloved son in Christ, we feel these flattering 
hopes increase in proportion as we know you to be as 



APPENDIX. 



119 



much beloved by them for your royal virtues, as by 
reason of your consanguinity. We are assured that 
this interposition of yours will be extremely agreeable 
to them, inasmuch as they are most anxious to see you 
exalted by the renovirn which would accrue to you from 
so signal an undertaking. We are therefore of opi- 
nion, that they will be emulous to take such measures 
as that, from the very source of dissension, should flow 
that peace which is recalled by your rare virtues. 

We confess that such are your merits with this Holy 
See, that we shall ever seek for every opportunity of 
proving to you our grateful sentiments and paternal 
love. We pray the Almighty Sovereign God to in- 
crease your virtues by the benignity of his grace, and 
to bestow upon you true happiness, and a glory 
which shall never fail. May the harbinger of such be 
our apostolic benediction, which, with the most fervent 
affection of a paternal heart, we lovingly bestow upon 
you, most beloved son in Christ, upon your illustrious 
consort, upon your new-born son, and all your royal 
family. 

Given in Rome, near Santa Maria Maggiore, 
sealed with the seal of the Piscatoris, the 
2d December, 1773, in the fifth year of our 
Pontificate. 

(Undersigned) Benedetto Slaij. 



120 APPENDIX. 



To our most beloved Son in Christ, Ferdinand, Royal 
Infant of Spain, Pope Clement the I'Uh. 

Most beloved Son in Christ, 

We salute you, and give you our apostolic 
benediction. As soon as vre received your most af 
fectionate letter, in which you informed us of your 
having taken strong measures v^ith the Bourbon 
kings, 3^0Dr near relations, and our beloved sons in 
Christ, in order that the ancient possession of the Con- 
tat Venaisin of Benevento and of Pontecorvo should 
be restored to this Holy See — we immediately, most 
beloved son in Christ, sought to return you those thanks 
which we felt we owed to you, for the great work 
which you undertook, and for the signal proofs you 
have given to us of your royal soul. But now that, 
through the Divine beneficence, and by the magnani- 
mity of those powerful sovereigns, those dominions are 
already restored to the Holy See, we write again, to 
repeat to you the deep obligations which are impressed 
upon our grateful heart. 

We rejoice, indeed, that the rights of the Apostolic 
See, thanks to their equity and virtue, remain un- 
touched and respected ; but this joy is still the greater 
from perceiving that your intreaties have had such va- 
luable efficacy with them, and have obtained so desir- 
able a result. For which cause we congratulate with 
you in the best manner, and we promise you ever to 
remember this your exceeding affection towards us, 
from which we have reaped such great and signal ad- 
vantages. Acknowledging, therefore, as we do, such 



APPENTDIX. 121 

virtue and such affection as yours to us, you may easily 
believe, Oh most beloved son in Christ, that equal to 
your most excellent deserts, is that paternal tenderness 
with which we regard you, and desire every thing that 
can add to your happiness and glory. These sentiments 
we have entertained for you ever since they were ex- 
pressed by us to our beloved son, the Marquis de Llano, 
when he was here, whom we greatly love for his well- 
known virtue, and, above all, for his excellent services 
to you. To confirm more and more what he will clearly 
testify to you, we pray the Almighty God, with the 
greatest fervour, that he may, by the effusion of his 
heavenly gifts, second the apostolic benediction, which 
we most lovingly bestow upon you, most beloved son in 
Christy and upon your illustrious royal family. 

Given at Rome, Dec. 30th, 1773. 



Most Holy Father, 

As I was about to write to your Holiness, to 
inform you of the favourable and gracious answer 
which I had received from the three monarchs of France, 
Spain, and Naples, my beloved grandfather, uncle, 
and cousin, to my respectful intercession, requesting 
them, by their love as fathers, to give your Holiness the 
satisfaction of seeing the states of Avignon, Benevento, 
and Pontecorvo restored to the ancient possession of the 
Holy See, I received at that moment your Holiness's 



122 



APPENDIX. 



second affectionate brief, of the 30th December of last 
year, repeating to me (being already informed of the 
happy result of my application) those thanks which you 
had already expressed to me in another brief of the 2d 
of the same month. How does my heart overflow with 
joy at this fortunate success,— at this immediate and 
generous condescension of my revered and beloved re- 
lations — at the infinite goodness with which the com- 
mon Father of the Faithful has appreciated and received 
an act of devotion from the least of his children ! I 
have thus begun the new year in the happiest manner, 
and I am filled with delight at thinking that, for the 
same reason, your Holiness has also commenced it with 
satisfaction and contentment, and that it will be sig- 
nalized amongst those of your triumphant and glorious 
pontificate, which may God prolong, according to my 
prayers and wishes. Now, I not only feel interested 
in its duration, as one of the Catholic princes, but like- 
wise as one of the elect of your Holiness, being so dis- 
tinguished by your grace and favour : of this my mi- 
nister, the Marquis de Llano, has assured me, who had 
the honour to kiss your holy feet, and to hear the same 
from your most sacred mouth ; and subsequaat events 
have confirmed the truth of his report, although his 
well-known veracity and talents did not require proofs 
to support his statement, for which qualities your Ho- 
liness has made honourable mention of his person, and 
I shall ever, for this cause, and for his good services, 
remember him with the greatest gratitude. 

I again repeat to your Holiness, that, as long as I 
live, I shall endeavour to preserve the paternal affec- 
tion and kindness of your Holiness, in order to render 



APPENDIX. 123 

me worthy of those heavenly gifts which will be granted 
to me and to my family by means of your holy bene- 
diction, which I once more implore. May our Lord 
protect the sacred person of your Holiness, for the hap- 
piness and prosperity of his universal church. 

Your Holiness's most devoted and humble son, who 
kisses your sacred feet and hands. 

(Signed) Ferdinand. 

J. A. Marquis DE Llano. 



Parma, ^th Jan. 1774. 



124 APPENDIX. 



E. 



EXTRAIT DES REGISTRES DU PARLEMENT. 

Du 26 Fevrier, 1768. 



CejouT) toutes les Chambres assemblees^ les Gens du Roi 

sont entrees, et M. Antoine Louis Seguier, Avocat 
du dit Seigneur Roi, portant la parole, ont dit : 

Messieurs, 

Tout ce qui peut porter la plus legere atteinte, soit 
directe, soit indirecte, a la puissance souveraine de nos 
Rois, et a la conservation des Libertes de TEglise Galli- 
cane ; tout ce qui s'eleve contre les maximes consacrees 
sur cette matiere ; enfin tout ce qui interesse I'ordre, et 
la tranquillite publique, doit sans doute animer notre 
zele, et exciter notre religion ; et nous nous flattons que 
la Cour nous rend la justice d'etre bien persuadee, que 
notre activite n'aura jamais de bornes toutes les fois 
que les interets du Roi, ou de I'etat se trouveront 
compromis. 

L'imprime, dont nous venons lui rendre compte en ce 
moment, est institue ; *' Sanctissimi Domini nostri de- 
mentis PP. XIII. litterae in forma Brevis, quibus abro- 
gantur, et cassantur ac nulla, irrita declarantur non- 
nulla Edicta in Ducatu Parmensi et Placentino edita, 
libertati, immunitati et jurisdiction! ecclesiasticae prae- 
judicialia. Romse MDCCLXVllI. Ex Tipografia Reve- 
rendse Camerse Apostplicae." 



APPENDIX. 125 

Quoique ce titre annonce, qu'un pareil acte d'auto- 
rlte de la Cour de Rome n'ait pas ete fait pour recevoir 
son execution dans le royaume, et qu'il paroisse ne 
pouvoir interesser que les sujets d'une puissance 
^trangere ; cependant les liens du sang, qui attaclient 
le Prince qui gouverne les Duches de Parme et de 
Plaisance a la maison de France, les principes generaux, 
qui sont la base des condamnations prononcees par ces 
Lettres Pontificales, les maximes opposees a cette an- 
cienne puretd des canons, qui constituent ce que nous 
appelons nos libertes, qu'on y etablit les consequences 
contraires aux droits de tous les souverains qui en re- 
sultent, ce que nous devons au Roi, au publique, a 
nous-meme; enfin le depot sacre de I'ordre, et de la 
tranquillite publique, qui nous est confie, tous nous 
engage a proposer a la Cour de prevenir par sa 
sagesse, les troubles qu'on chercheroit a occasionner a 
la faveur d'un imprime de cette nature, s'il se rd- 
pandoit dans le royaume sans aucune reclamation. 

Et comment pourrions nous garder le silence a la 
vue des fausses maximes, que ces lettres reproduisent ? 
Personne n'ignore aujourd'liui Fetendue des pretentions 
de la Cour de Rome, elle a clierclie dans tous les tems, 
a les faire valoir et elles sont toutes principalement 
consignees dans les Bulles differentes qui ont precede 
ou suivi la Bulle appellee In Coena Domini, d raison 
du jour ou elle se public a Rome tous les ans. Personne 
n'ignore que, depuis le Pape Jules II. , elle a dte aug- 
ment^e, et amplifiee suivant les terns, et les circon- 
stances, et au gre de la politique Romaine. 

C'est dans cette Bulle du Pape Jules II., et dans 
celles du m^me genre, que se trouvent le siege des 



126 APPENDIX. 

principes, qu'on veut renouveller aujourd'hui ; et de 
peur que Ton n'en doute, les lettres en forme de Bref 
se referent nommement a la publication qui se fait tous 
les ans a Rome In Coena Domini. 

La reclamation contre ces BuUes dijfferentes fut 
generale. L'article 17 de nos libertes rejette ex- 
pressement les clauses inserees in Coena Domini, et 
notamment celle du terns de Pape Jules II. et depuis, 
qui n'ont lieu en France pour ce qui concerne les 
libertes et privileges de I'Eglise Gallicane, et droits 
du Roi, ou du royaume. Toutes les autres puissances 
Catholiques ont suivi le meme exemple. Rodolphe 
Empereur, TArcheveque de Mayence, I'Espagne, 
Naples, et Venise les ont egalement rejettees. En 1536, 
il parut un petit livre imprime en France intitule, 
Bulla Coeiia Domini^ avec un Commentaire de Rebuffe. 
Nos predecesseurs en informerent le Roi, parceque 
cette Bulle contenoit, disoient-ils, des clauses etranges 
contre son autorite, et contre ses cours de parlement ; 
et que c'etoit la publier, en quelque sorte, que d'im- 
primer, et la exposer en vente sous cette forme. La 
Gourde Rome faitplusieurs tentatives de la faire publier 
en France. Elle a paru en 1780, sous letitrede '' Litterae 
processus S. D. M.D. Gregori PP. XIII. lectae die 
Coenae Domini, Anno 1580," et par arret du 4 Octobre 
dela meme annee, voUs en avez defendu la publication. 
On forma de nouvelles tentatives en 1641 ; elle reparut 
sous letitre de ^'Constitutio super praeservatione jurium 
Sedis Apostolicse," en date du 5 Juin, 1641. Monsieur le 
procureur general se plaignait de ce qu'elle donnoit une 
nouvelle autorite a la Bulle In Coena Domini dont 
on s'toit toujours plaint, faisoit prejudice a tous les 



APPENDIX. 127 

souve rains, changeolt les lois, et les ordres du royaume, 
otoit les privileges, prerogatives^ et pr^-eminences de 
la couronne, abolissoit les libertes del'Eglise Gallicane, 
et, sous pr^texte de conserver les droits du Saint Siege, 
entreprenoit sur le temporel des rois, et d'autant qu'elle 
pouvoit etre publiee sansattendre les ordres des rois; 
et d'autant en quoi son autorite se voit violee, il requit 
qu'il fut pourvu. La cour, par arret du 18 Septem- 
bre de la meme annee, fit defense de publier cette 
bulle nouvelle sous peine contre ceux qui la publieront 
d^etre declar6s rebelles au roi, et criminels de leze-ma- 
jeste. 

Ce sont cesbulles differentes qu'on reproduit aujour- 
d'hui, par les lettres en forme de Bref, qui nous ont 6te 
communiquees. On y conteste, comme des-lors, au sou- 
verain tout ce qui appartient a I'exercice de la puissance 
temporelle, le droit de regler les dispositions en faveur 
des gens de mains-raortes, celles de ceux qui veulent 
entrer en religion. On presente les imm unites des biens 
ecclesiastiques, comme des avantages qui appartiennent 
a TEglise de droit divin, independamment de toute con- 
cession des Princes, &c. &c. 

Et encore que Dieu n'ait accorde a Saint Pierre, et a 
ses successeurs, aucun pouvoir sur la puissance qu'il a 
donnee aux princes pour le gouverneraent de leurs 
6tats, le Pape casse, annulle, et abolit, par la plenitude 
de sa puissance, tout ce que le Prince de Parme, et de 
Plaisance a ordonne, et il fait defense aux sujets d'obeir 
a leur souverain. Ces lettres pontificales declarent 
" que ceux qui ont public, promulgue, appuye, et 
** execute, et fait executer les dits edits, ou fait acte 



128 



APPENDIX. 



" en consequence, leurs fauteurs, et adherens, ceiix 
*' qui ont connu, et reconoissent la puissance illegale 
" des magistrals susdits, juges, officiers, conservateurs, 
" et autres, sur les personnes, et biens ecclesiastiques, 
** et g^neralement tous ceux qui ont participe, soit 
*' qu'ils soient designee, soit qu'ils ne le soient pas, 
" meme ceux dont il seroit besoin de faireune mention 
*' expresse, ont encourus les censures ecclesiastiques 
*' portees par les saints canons, les decrets des conciles 
*' generaux, les constitutions apostoliques, et nomme- 
" ment la bulle qu'on lit le Jeudi Saint. Qu'ils sont 
" d^chu de tous leurs privileges, et qu'ils sont liors 
" d'etat de recevoir I'absolution, jusqu' a ce qxi'ils 
*' aient retabli les choses pleinement, et en entier dans 
" leur ancien etat, ou fait une satisfaction convenable a 
" I'Eglise, et au Saint Siege." 

Enfin ce Bref finit par une clause qui ordonne " qu'at- 
'* tendu qu'il n'y a pas de surete de publier le dit 
*' bref dans les Duches de Parme, Plaisance, et Gua- 
'* stalle, il sera affiche aux portes de I'Eglise de S. 
" Jean de Latran, de la Basilique de S. Pierre, de la 
" Chancellerie Romaine, et autres lieux accoutumes ; et 
" que cette publication et affiche obbligera tous ceux 
" qui y sont interesses, come si les dites lettres avoient 
^'^ ete signifiees a chacun d'eux en particulier." 

On se persuadera difficilement, que, dans un siecle 
ou les droits des souverains sont si evidemment respectes, 
on puisse en imposer aux princes et a leurs sujets. Ce 
seroit en quelque fa^on paroitre douter du droit des 
souverains sur cette matiere, que de nous arreter a vous 
etablir les principes ; ils sont evidens par eux-memes, 



APPENDIX, 129 

ce sont autant de Veritas primitives, que I'int^ret per- 
sonnel peut combattre, mais que la prevention des au- 
teurs ultramontains n'a jamais pu alterer. 

Que d'autorit^s ne pourrions-nous pas rapporter en 
ce moment, mais des principes aussi anciens que 
I'Eglise, aussi etendus que les ^tats qui professent notre 
sainte religion, aussi constans que cette religion elle- 
meme, et dont on peut retrouver les monuments dans 
tous les Etats Catholiques ! Ces principes n'ont pas 
besoin d'etre appuyes de preuves devant des magis- 
trats qui en sentent toute la verite, qui connoissent 
nos libertes, qui en sont penetres, qui les ont de- 
fendu si souvent, et qui les regarderont toujours comme 
le rempart le plus assure centre les entreprises de la 
Cour de Rome. 

Quelles dangereuses circonstances ne r^sulteroit-il 
pas des maximes contraires ? Si tous les decrets eman^s 
de la Cour de Rome, disoit un de nos predecesseurs, 
(M. Joly de Fleury, en 1716,) avoient force de loi dans 
tous les Etats Catholiques, sans le secours de la puissance 
seculiere, les censures, excommunications, les interdits, 
les entreprises sur le temporel, et sur I'autorite des 
Rois, et tout ce qui porteroit le caractere du Pape, seroit 
done une loi souveraine a laquelle tous les fideles seroient 
assujetis, et I'autorite des princes et des magistrats de- 
viendroit impuissante pour arreter le cours des nou- 
veautes, qui s'etabliroient sans eux dans leurs propres 
etats. 

Nous dirions encore avec lui, que ce seroit en vain 
que nos rois auroient refuse de recevoir plusieurs bulles 
des Papes, qui ne s''accordoient pas avec nos maximes ; 
que ce seroit en vain, que nos peres auroient proteste 

K 



130 APPENDIX, 

centre tant de decrets, et surtout contre la huWe In 
Cosna Domini dont la cour a si solemnellement defendue 
rimpression, et 1' execution dans les royaumes. Tant 
de precaution deviendroit inutile, et la sagesse, ainsi 
que la prevoyance de nos ancetres seroient impuissantes 
pour notre tranquillite. 

Quel pent done etre I'objet d'un acte aussi etrange ? 
Les sentiments de respect que nous avons pour le Pape 
dont il est ^man^, ne permettent pas de penser qu'il 
adopte des mesures si contraires a celles de I'Evangile, 
qu'il veuille faire revivre des droits aussi chimeriques 
que deplorables, et qu'il cherche rentrer, dans des de- 
meles capables d'attirer non seulement sur ses propres 
etats toutes sortes de raalheurs, mais ce qui toucheroit 
encore plus son coeur, capables de nuire a la religion 
Catholique, si on pouvoit croire qu'elle autorisat de pa- 
reils attentats. Detournons nos regards de pareilles idees, 

Quelque intrigue surde agite des esprits inquiets, at- 
taches, ou devoues a la politique Romaine, et a celle 
d'une societe qui a terni, et meme fletri tout Teclat de 
cette cour. Elle est dechue de sa splendeur ancienne, 
cette societe coupable ; elle est bannie de plusieurs 
royaumes ; elle est prete a rentrer dans le neant ; elle 
n'ose attaquer les souverains, puissants de trois etats ; ou 
elle n'existe plus, elle attaque un prince egalement clier 
a ses souverains. Elle voudra peut-etre engager la Cour 
de Rome a pretexter des droits chimeriques sur les 
etats de ce prince ; elle tentera de troubler la bonne 
intelligence qui regne entre les puissances Catholiques 
et le Pape, et par ce desordre elle se flatte de reculer 
sa perte, ou d'en rend re TeiDoque memorable dans les 
annales des empires. 



APPENDIX. 131 

Telle est I'idee que Ton pent se former de ce coup 
hazarde, de cette insulte gratuite faite a un prince dont 
la cause en ce moment est celle de tous les souverains. 

Pareille chose a peu pres, mais dans des circonstances 
moins interessantes, est arrivee en 1715, a I'occaslon des 
lettres monitoriales pour la Sicile. Vous en avez pris 
connoissance, par la consideration du danger, que ces 
entreprises de la Cour de Rome portent a toutes les 
puissances, et par arret du 15 Janvier, 1716, vous les 
avez supprimes. 

Trop de motifs se reunissent ici pour ne pas nous 
engager de meme a nous Clever contre les lettres en 
forme de bref, donnees le 30 Janvier de la presente 
ann^e, contre les Dues de Parme et de Plaisance. 

Nous ne devons pas devoir nous contenter de requerir 
la suppression de ces lettres en forme de bref; ce ne 
seroit pas porter assez loin les precautions que de se 
borner a en defendre la distribution dans le royaume, 
sous les peines ordinaires ; la tentative temdraire et 
hardie, que nous ne pouvons attribuer qu'aux officiers 
de la Cour de Rome, la critique meme qu'ils ont ose 
faire de V Exequatur, qui est la loi de tons les pays, et 
singulierement de la France, nous determine a vous 
proposer de la remettre en vigueur dans le ressort de 
la cour, comme elle y est celui des differents parlements 
du royaume, ou conformement a I'Article 77 de nos 
Libertes, toutes Boules, et expeditions venant de Cour 
de Rome, sans exception^ doivent Stre visitees, pour sqa- 
voir si en icelles il n^y auroit aucune chose qui portdt 
prejudice en quelque mani^e que ce soit aux droits et 
libertes de VEglise Gallicane et a Vautorite du roi. 

Cette precaution sera un preservatif assure contre 

k3 



132 APPENDIX. 

toiites les voies, qui ont ^tt^ prises en differents tems a 
Rome pour assujetir insensiblement les particuliers par 
des clauses nouvelles^ soit aux bulles In Coena Domini, 
soit a d'autre qui contrediroient nos maxiraes. i Ensorte 
que nous proposerons a la cour de se renfermer, en cette 
occasion, dans les termes exacts du principe, qui ne 
souffre d'autre exception, que celle des brefs de p6m- 
tencierie, lesquelles ne peuvent avoir pour objet que 
le for interieur de ceux qui les obtiennent. 

Ce sont les motifs des conclusions que nous avons 
prises par ^crit, et que nous laissons a la cour avec les 
lettres en forme de bref qui nous ont ^t^ communiqu^es. 

Et se sont les dits gens du roi retires : 

Eux retires. 

Vu I'imprim^ intitule: '' Sanctissimi Domini nostri 
" Clementis PP. XIII. Litterae in forma brevis, qui- 
" bus abrogantur, et cassantur ac nulla, et irrita decla- 
'^ rantur nonnulla Edicta inDucatuParmensi, et Placen- 
*' tino edita, libertati, immunitati^ et jurisdictioni Ec- 
" clesiasticae praejudicialia. Romae MDCCLXVIII. 
*' ExTypographia Reverendse Camerse Apostolicae," con- 
tenant huit petites pages in folio^ commen9ant par ces 
mots: Alias ad Apostulatus nostri noiitiam, et finissant 
a la huitieme page par ces mots : Datum RomcB, apud 
S. Mariam Majorem, sub annulo Piscatoris, die 30 Ja- 
nuarii 1768. Pontijicatus nostri anno decimo. Signe, 
A. Cardinalis Negroniis ; et au-dessous mention de 
raffiche et publication faites le premier Fevrier^ 1768, 
en divers lieux de Rome ; Conclusions du Procureur 
General du Roi. Oui le rapport de M. Denis Louis 
Pasquier, Conseiller. Tout considere, 

La Cour^ toutes les Chambres assemblees, a ordonn^, 



APPENDIX. 



et ordonne que le dlt imprime sera, e demeurera tou- 
jours supprime ; fait defense a toutes personnes de 
quelqu'etat, dignite, et qualite qu'elles soient^ soit lay- 
ques, soit ecclesiastiques, seculieres, ou regulieres^ im- 
primeurs^ libraires^ colporteurs, gu autres, de faire 
imprimer, distribuer^ vendre ou autrement dormer pub- 
licite au dit imprim6 a peine d'etre precede extraordi- 
nairement centre eux, come rebelles au roi^ et criminels 
de leze-majest^ ; enjoint a tous ceux qui en auront 
des exemplaires de les apporter au GreiFe de la Cour 
pour y etre supprimes ; ordonne que les lois, et ordon- 
nances du royaume^ arrets, et reglements de la Cour^ 
notamment les arrets du 4 Octobre, 1580, et 18 Sept^® 
1641, seront executes selon leur forme et teneur ; en 
consequence, fait inhibitions et defenses a tous arcli^- 
veques, ^veques, officiaux, et autres, comme aussi a 
toutes personnes, de quelque qualites et conditions 
qu'elles soient, de recevoir, faire lire, publier, et im- 
primer, ni autrement mettre a execution aucunes bulles, 
brefs, rescrits, decrets, mandats, provisions, signature 
servant de provisions, ou autres expeditions de Cour de 
Rome, meme ne concernant que les particuliers : a I'ex- 
ception neanmoins des brefs de Penitencerie pour le for 
int^rieure seulement, sans avoir ^te presente en la cour 
vus, et visitees par icelle,a peine de nullite des dites ex- 
peditions, et de qui s'en seroit ensuivie. Ordonne en 
outre, que le present arret sera, par le Procureur Ge- 
neral du Roi envoye aux arch^veques, et ^veques 
etant dans le ressort de la cour, et a sa requete signifie, 
pour cette ville de Paris, aux recteurs et suppots de 
rUniversite, doyen et syndics de la Faculte de The'o- 
logie, comme aussi a la dite requete du Procureur Ge- 



134 APPENDIX. 

iieral du Roi^ poursuite, et diligence de ses substituts 
sur les lieuxj aux recteurs^ et suppots des autres Uni- 
versites, doyens^ et syndics des Facultes de Theologie 
pour etre le present arret inscrit sur les registres des 
dites Universite et Facultes de Theologie. Et qu'a 
regard des autres communautes seculieres, ou regulieres, 
«t tous autres^ I'affiche du present arr^t deviendra, et 
sera imprime, publie^ et affiche par tout ou besoin sera, 
et copies collationees d'icelui envoyees aux baillages, 
et senechaussee du ressort pour y etre lu, public, et 
registre. En joint aux substituts du Frocureur General 
du Roy d'y tenir la main, et d'en certifier la cour dans 
le mois. Arrete en outre que le premier president 
sera charge de porter au roi le present arrete, et de 
le supplier tres-iiumblement de vouloir bien prendre les 
mesures que sa sagesse pourra lui inspirer pour rendre 
uniformes dans son royaume les formes a observer pour 
procurer Pexecution des expeditions venantes de Cour 
de Rome conformement aux lois et maximes du royaume. 
Faite en Parlement, toutes les Chambres, le 26 Fevrier, 
mille sept cent soixante huit. 



ill 



APPENDIX. 135 



F. 



EDIT BE SA MAJESTE IMPERIALE ET HOYALE 
APOSTOLIQUE, PUBLIE DANS TOUTE LA LOM- 
BARDIE AUTRIGHIENNE LE 19 OCTOBRE, 1768. 

Les dispositions ecclesiastiques, qui outrepassent les 
limites de la pure spiritualite, portant sur des objets 
temporels, politiques, et economiques, ne peuvent, sans 
le consentement positif du prince, (en qui seul reside la 
supreme puissance legislative pour tout ce qui a rapport 
a la societe civile,) devenir obbligatoires pour les sujets ; 
toutes celles qui se trouvent manquer de ce consentement 
ou d'une acceptation legale doivent done ^tre consi- 
derees comme nulles^ et ill6gitimes. 

En supposant meme I'admission de ces dispositions, 
comme elle n'est due qu'4 la concession du prince, qui 
seul 6toit egalement Tarbitre de ne pas les admettre, a 
proportion de I'exigence de la cause pubblique elles 
sont dans le cas de toute autre concession ou loi, faites^ 
ou a faire, qui, emanant de la puissance legislative et 
supreme, non seulement peuvent, mais m^me doivent 
^tre cliang6es^ et annullees, lorsque le bien general ou 
les abus successifs, ou bien la difference des terns, et 
des circonstances le requierent, et qu'il n'est point de 
loi fondamentale de P^tat qui s'y oppose. 

Etant done parvenu i notre connoissance, que la 
bulle nommee In Coena Domini, laquelle n 'ay ant 
jamais ete admise ni acceptee par nous, et par nos 



136 APPENDIX. 

predecesseurs, s'est introduite par des voies indirectes 
dans nos etats de la Lombardie ; et que quand raeme 
cela ne seroit point, cette bu]le contient notoirement 
des dispositions pour la plupart absolument etrangeres 
au ministere du sacerdoce, et de plus, quelques autres 
impossibles d justifier, et grievement attentatoires i la 
puissance souveraine ; apres avoir dej^ fait exhorter 
nos eveques de la Lombardie Autrichienne de s'abstenir 
de faire, ^ I'avenir, aucun usage de la dite bulle In 
Coena Domini, en quelque forme et maniere qui put 
dependre de leur ministere, Nous les y exhortons 
encore de nouveau, par le present edit ; telle etant 
notre determination souveraine. 

Nous notifions en consequence a tous nos sujets, tant 
eccl(^siastique, que seculiers, en quelque rang et dignite 
qu'ils soient constitues, que nous entendons, et voulons, 
qu'^ I'avenir il ne puisse, et ne doive etre fait dans 
tous nos etats de la Lombardie Autrichienne, aucun 
usage de la bulle Li Coena Domi7ii, pour quelque 
cause et effet que ce puisse etre ; declarant d'autant 
plus ill6gitime et abusive, toute pratique contraire, 
directe ou indirecte, qu'aussi-bien elle ne pourroit 
jamais prejudicier a cette puissance legitime, supreme, 
et legislative, que nous tenons de Dieu pour le bien de 
la societe civile. 

Nous avons done defendu, comme nous defendons 
par le present edits, d tous libraires, imprimeurs, et 
a toutes personnes ou communautes quelconques, de 
garder et retenir la dite bulle, voulant bien moins 
encore qu'elle puisse etre exposee au public, en quelque 
lieu que ce soit^, sous peine arbitraire au gouverne- 
ment, etc. 



APPENDIX. 137 

A ces causes ordonnons et commandons que le 
present 6dit soit public et affiche, suivant I'usage^ dans 
tous les lieux et endroits accoiitumes, pour que per- 
sonne n'en puisse pretexter cause d'ignorance. 

. A Milan, le 19 Octohre 1768. 



138 APPENDIX. 



G. 

MEMOIR UPON THE PilPAL INVESTITURE OF THE 
KINGDOM OF THE TWO SICILIES. 

The origin of the right to census, and the presentation 
of a hackney, as assumed by the Papal See from the 
kings of Naples, appears to have been derived from a 
custom of a similar nature, which was established in 
Germany, under the Emperor, Henry XL, who, in the 
year 1005, having built a Church in Bamberg, applied 
to Pope Benedict the Eighth to consecrate it as a cathe- 
dral, and establish upon it a bishopric ; these requests 
were complied with, but upon the condition of the 
yearly payment to the See of Rome of one hundred 
marks of silver, and the presentation of a hackney or 
saddle horse. 

A short time after this transaction, some Norman 
adventurers, on their return from the Holy-land, had 
distinguished themselves in repelling an attack of the 
Saracens upon the town of Salerno. The valuable 
rewards they received for this service from the Prince of 
that city induced a number of their countrymen, under 
Drago, to bend their steps towards a country where 
riches appeared so easily to be obtained. The reputa- 
tion for valour which the first adventurers had esta- 
blished, induced a citizen of Bari, named Melo, to 
apply to these new adventurers, upon their arrival, to 
join him in a contest in which he was engaged against 
the Greeks who then occupied the Calabrias and a 



APPENDIX. 



139 



part of Apulia. Melo was defeated at the battle of 
Cannes in 1019. The Normans, who escaped from 
this action, took service under the Princes of Salerno 
and Capua ; but having afterwards been joined by a 
larger body of their countrymen, they enlisted under 
the Emperor Henry II., who at that time was engaged 
in a campaign in Apulia, but who, not having succeeded 
in his objects, and having been obliged to retire from 
the country, they quitted his service, and under Rainul- 
phus, brother of Drago, established themselves in 
Aversa. The possession of this place was confirmed to 
them by Sergius, General of the republic of Naples^ 
as a recompense for the assistance they had offered him 
in delivering that city from the usurpation of the 
Prince of Capua. 

In 1035, a more considerable body of Normans ar- 
rived at Tarento, under three brothers of the house of 
Tahcrfed, of Haute- Ville. These commanders led their 
troops, in the first instance, into Sicily, as a reinforce- 
ment to the Greek army, which was engaged in hostili- 
ties with the Saracens in that island ; but upon their 
return to the continent they joined Ardoiuj a Lombard 
chief, and in two campaigns made themselves masters 
in 1042 of the greatest part of Apulia. They continued 
their conquests in the succeeding years, and in 1047, 
they were invested by the Emperor Henry III., at 
Capua, with the government of the provinces they had 
taken possession of, and with the Duchy of Benevento, 
if they could make themselves masters of it. With 
the view of facilitating this object, the emperor is 
stated to have induced the Pope Clement the Second 
to excommunicate the people of Benevento, for not 



140 APPENDIX^ 

having opened tlieir gates to him, and acknowledged 
his sovereignty. In the year 1048, Leo IX. was elected 
pope : the Normans, who had by this time obtained 
possession of Benevento, appear to have given him 
some cause of complaint, in consequence of which he 
waited upon the emperor, and having liberated the 
bishopric of Bamberg from the annual payment of the 
one hundred marks (retaining the claim to the pre- 
sentation of the hackney), he received in return the 
grant of the city of Benevento ; and an imperial army 
having been placed under his orders, after having ex- 
communicated the Normans, he marched against them. 
But the papal and imperial army being totally de- 
feated on the 18th of June, 1053, near Civitella, the 
pope was taken prisoner, and carried to Benevento, 
The Normans had, in the mean time, made over the 
grant, which they had received of this city, to the 
Lombards, but they required of the pope, whom they 
treated with every respect and reverence, to confirm 
the investiture, which they had already received from 
the emperor, of all the conquests they had made in 
Apulia and Calabria. The pope, having been removed 
to Capua, acceded to their wishes, by granting the 
investiture to Humphrey, Count of Apulia and Cala- 
bria. This act became the foundation of the claims 
which have ever since been maintained by the popes to 
the sovereignty of the kingdom of Naples ; it was fol- 
lowed up by Pope Nicholas II., who, finding the 
Normans too powerful to cope with, consented, in 
the year 1059, in a council assembled at Melfi, to 
invest them with the Duchies of Apulia, Calabria, and 
Sicily, which were given to Robert Guiscard ; and of 



APPENDIX. 141 

Capua, which, having been taken from Landolf, a 
Lombard chief, was conferred upon Richard, Count 
of Aversa. 

The mode in which this grant of an extensive do- 
minion, which had never belonged to the See of Rome, 
was effected, was not unusual in the times in which it 
occurred. The Normans, who feared the power of the 
emperor, were desirous of protecting themselves by- 
interposing the authority of the church : they therefore 
gave over their possessions to the See of Rome, as an 
offering or oblation, receiving them back upon the 
condition of the payment of a census or tribute to the 
superior lord, whom they acknowledged; the census, 
in this case, was the yearly payment of twelve denari, 
for every pair of oxen. 

The Normans continued to extend their possessions, 
and Robert Guiscard established his authority in the 
Duchies of Bari and Amalfi, in the principality of Saler- 
no, and in the greater part of Sicily. He had at one time 
been excommunicated by Pope Gregory VII. ; but this 
prelate, being engaged in his well-known contest with the 
Emperor Henry IV., applied to Robert for assistance, 
who, marching to his rescue in 1084, escorted Gregory 
from Rome, where he was besieged by the imperial 
troops, to Salerno. Gregory at this place renewed 
the grant of investiture of all his conquests to Robert, 
with the exception of the principality of Salerno and 
the duchy of Amalfi, which the Holy See, upon the 
ground of their having been included in the grants of 
Pepin and Charlemagne, considered as a part of its 
temporal dominion *. 

* In the course of the ne^^ociation which accompanied these 



14B 



APPENDIX. 



From this time the renewal of this grant was re- 
peated by each succeeding pontiff, until the year 1139, 
when Roger 11., count of Sicily, and nephew to Robert 
Guiscard, who had died in the year 1085, first declared 
himself king of the two Sicilies. He afterwards was 
confirmed in this title by the anti-Pope Anacletus, 
whose cause he had espoused, and on account of whom 
he was involved in a war with the Emperor Lothario 
and Pope Innocent II. 

The results of this contest were at first disastrous to 
Roger, and he was driven from the greater part of his 
territories on the continent ; but the emperor having 
returned to Germany, the king of Naples re-occupied 
his former possessions, and in an action near the Castle 
of Galluzzo, defeated the papal army, and took the 
pope prisoner. His holiness, under these circum- 
stances, confirmed to Roger the grants which had been 
made to him by the anti-Pope Anacletus, conceding 
to him also the sovereignty of Capua and Naples, over 
neither of which, it appears, that the Papal See had to 
that time exercised the slightest power or authority. 
By this act the kingdom of the two Sicilies was first 
established : it was confirmed to William I., son of 
Roger, in 1115, by Adrian IV. (the only Englishman 
who has occupied the chair of St. Peter), in the 
treaty of Benevento. The title descended to the son of 
William, and in the year 1194 (after the short usurpa- 
tion of Tancred) to the Emperor Henry VI., son of 
Frederic Barbarossa, who had married Constance, 
daughter of Roger, and sole heir to these kingdoms. 

arrang-ements, the city of Benevento, which had been taken from 
the Lombards in 1077, was made over to the popes. 



APPENDIX. 143 

By this marriage the Swabian family became possessed 
of the throne of the two Sicilies; they still held it under 
the same condition of a feudum oblatum of the Holy 
See, on which the Normans had consented to possess it. 
But at the death of the Emperor Frederic II. (son of 
Henry VI., and his successor to the kingdom of Na- 
ples), a new series of events arose, from which the 
popes^ rejecting the minor claim of sovereignty over 
these kingdoms, as an oblata or offering, assumed the 
entire power of disposing of them at their pleasure. 
The first trace of this pretension may be discovered in 
the conduct of Innocent III., at the death of Henry VI., 
when this pontiff consented to grant the investiture of 
the two Sicilies to Frederic (who, being a minor, was 
under the guardianship of his mother Constance), upon 
less favourable conditions than those which had been 
agreed to by Adrian IV., and in the claim he esta- 
blished to the guardianship of that prince, after the 
death of his mother. 

But, at the decease of this sovereign, Pope Inno- 
cent IV., who had been engaged in violent hostility 
against him, and who had excommunicated him, laid 
claim to the kingdom of Naples, and, in the intention 
of uniting it to the patrimony of St. Peter, wrote to 
the city of Naples :■ — " By the consent of our brothers 
*' the cardinals, we have taken your persons, your 
** property, and your town, under the protection of 
" the Holy See ; we have decreed that it shall remain 
*' for ever under its immediate dependence, and we en- 
" gage that the church shall never grant any sove- 
*' reignty or authority over it to any emperor, prince, 
" or count, or to any other person whatsoever." 



144 APPENDIX. 

To the clergy of Sicily he communicated the same 
intentions, and he prepared to carry them into effect. 
The force of arms, however, in this instance, prevailed 
against the thunders of the Vatican. Mainfroy, the ille- 
gitimate son of the Emperor Frederic, maintained the 
sovereignty of the kingdom, and, in the year 1252, 
delivered it over to Conrad, the rightful heir, who 
suppressed the rebellion which had been excited by the 
Holy See, and established himself in quiet possession 
of the country. 

Innocent IV., disappointed in his schemes of con- 
quest, and convinced of his inability ever to carry 
them into effect, made an offer of the crown of 
the Two Sicilies to Richard Earl of Cornwall, brother 
to Henry III. of England ; but this negotiation having 
failed, he persuaded Henry to accept it for his second 
son. Prince Edmund *. 

While the preparations for carrying these intentions 
into effect were in progress, Charles Count of Anjou, 
brother to Louis XL, King of France, offered, upon the 
condition of receiving the papal investiture of the king- 
dom, to charge himself with the expedition ; but all these 
negotiations were suspended by the death of Conrad, in 
1254, and the Pope declared to the ambassadors who 
appeared before him, in the name of the infant son of 
that prince, and who were desirous of recommending to 
him the protection of his rights, *' that he would first 
*' have entire possession of the Two Sicilies, and then 
" would decide (when Conradin should be of age) what 
'' favours he might grant to him." Mainfroy, who 

* The bull by which the iavestiture was granted to Prince 
Edmund is dated in May, 1254. 



APPENDIX. 145 

had been named by Conrad the guardian of his son, 
conceiving that, in the disturbed state of the country, 
he should be unable to resist the forces which had been 
assembled by the Pope, determined to repair to his 
camp at Ceprano, and to conduct him into the king- 
dom ; at the same time he solemnl}^ protested in favour 
of the rights of his nephew. Finding, however, that 
the Pope was requiring from the inhabitants the oath 
of fidelity to the Holy See, and fearing for his own 
safety, he secretly quitted his residence at Acerra, and 
fled to Luceria, where, having found a considerable 
garrison of Saracens who were entirely devoted to 
him, he formed an army, with which he reconquered 
the whole kingdom. During this period Innocent died. 
His successor, Alexander IV., excommunicated Main- 
froy ; but Urban IV. (after having obtained from 
Henry of England, and his son Prince Edmund, the 
renunciation of the investiture granted to him by Inno- 
cent IV., and having convinced the King of France that 
every right of Conradin had been forfeited in the excom- 
munication of his grandfather Frederic II.) ceded the 
kingdom of the Two Sicilies, with the reserve of Be- 
nevento, to Count Charles of Anjou, to be held by him 
and his successors as a fief of the church, upon the 
payment of an annual tribute of 8000 sterling marks, 
a white hackney or steed, and an engagement to hold a 
force of 5000 foreign cavalry at the disposition of the 
Holy See. The accomplishment of this arrangement was 
reserved for the successor of Urban, Clement IV., under 
whose pontificate Charles, in the church of St. John 
Lateran, in the year 1265, received the crown of the 
Two Sicilies, and did homage for it in the presence of 
four cardinals, who had been named by the Pope to 
receive it. i. 



146 APPENDIX, 

Having thus traced tlie assumption of the entire 
authority on the part of the Holy See to dispose of the 
kingdom of the Two Sicilies, it would be tedious to 
follow in detail the exercise of this pretended right 
through the various and contradictory transactions to 
which it led. But, as early as 1283, Martin IV. ex- 
communicated Peter of Arragon for accepting the 
throne of Sicily, which had become vacant by the ex- 
pulsion of the French, in consequence of the Sicilian 
Vespers, in 1303 ; however, Frederic HI., brother of 
Peter, received from Boniface VIH. the investiture of 
that kingdom. In 1309, Clement V. disposed of Na- 
ples in favour of Robert, second son of Charles H., in 
preference to Charles Hubert, son of Charles Martel, 
who was his elder brother. Urban VI., in the year 
1380, pronounced a sentence of deposition against 
Johanna, daughter of Robert, and crowned Charles 
Durazzo (descendant of Charles Hubert) King of 
Naples^ authorising and directing his conquest of that 
kingdom. When this object had been attained. Urban 
claimed from Charles the principalities of Capua and 
of Melfi for his nephew, which being refused, he ex- 
communicated and deposed that sovereign whom he 
had created, and made over the investiture of the king- 
dom to Louis of Anjou, son of Louis, to whom Johanna, 
when assailed by Charles, had left her inheritance. 

Upon the death of Charles, who was assassinated in 
Hungary, the Pope claimed the regency of the king- 
dom on the part of Louis ; but his successor, Boni- 
face IX., recognised the rights of Ladislas, son of 
Charles, annulling the deprivation which had been pro- 
nounced against him by his predecessor. 

Alexander V.j however, in 1409, reversed this de- 



V APPENDIX. 147 

cislon, excommunicated Ladislas, and invested Louis 
with the sovereignty, which was also continued to him 
by John XXII. ; these efforts were unsuccessful, La- 
dislas retained possession of his kingdom, and trans- 
mitted it^ in 1414, to his sister, Johanna 11., who 
having first adopted Alfonso of Arragon, King of 
Sicily, as her heir, afterwards reversed this arrange- 
ment, and appointed Louis of Anjou (son of the Louis 
who has just been mentioned), who was invested in 
1423, by Martin V. The See of Rome was equally 
unfortunate in this undertaking. At the death of Jo- 
hanna, Alfonso succeeded in establishing himself in the 
kingdom; he transmitted it to his natural son Ferdinand. 
Calixtus III., not recognising the legitimacy of this 
arrangement, claimed the sovereignty as having de- 
volved to the Holy See. Pius II., however, confirmed 
the title of Ferdinand, to whom Sextus IV. remitted 
the census due to Rome, requiring only in future the 
presentation of the hackney. 

Innocent VIII. rejected this arrangement, and ex- 
communicated Ferdinand, absolving his subjects from 
their oaths and allegiance, and taking part with the 
rebellious barons in their attempt to deprive him of his 
crown. This rebelhon having failed, Alfonso II. suc- 
ceeded to his father, and was crowned by Caesar 
Borgia, who, being elected Pope, had taken the name 
of Alexander VI. 

This very notorious pontiff took part with Charles 
VIII. of France in his invasion of the kingdom, in the 
sovereignty of which he had confirmed Alfonso ; he 
afterwards returned to his first alliance with the son of 
Alfonso, Ferdinand II., under whose reign Charles 
evacuated Naples, and returned to France. Upon the 

h 2 



i48 



APPENDIX. 



death of Ferdinand, the crown of Naples devolved upon 
his uncle, Frederic of Arragon. This prince was at first 
supported in his contest with the King of France, by 
Ferdinand the Catholic King of Spain ; but this very- 
religious and Catholic sovereign, after occupying the 
strong places of the kingdom, entered into a treaty 
with Louis XII., successor to Charles VI 11. of France, 
by which, in 1501, he divided this country with him, de- 
spoiling Frederic, and obhging him to abandon his states ; 
he afterwards (through the means of his great captain, 
Gonsalve of Cordova) drove the French out of that 
part of the kingdom which had been granted them by 
treaty, and established his sole authority. He was suc- 
ceeded by Charles V., upon whom Leo X. conferred 
the sovereignty, dispensing with an article of the ori- 
ginal investiture, as granted to the House of Anjou, 
according to which no King of Naples could hold the 
imperial dignity. 

When Charles V. succeeded to the throne of these 
kingdoms, although the arbitrator of Europe and the 
Indies, yet he submitted to receive the Papal investi- 
ture in the capitulation of 1529, wherein it was, 
amongst other things, established, that the Pope, Cle- 
ment VII., should give up all claim to the arrears of 
the census which were due, and that the Holy See 
should, in future, renounce all pretension to that pay- 
ment, receiving only the yearly presentation of the 
hackney as a mark of vassalage. 

These dispositions were protested against in 1 555, by 
Paul IV., who claimed the census from Philip II. ; 
and upon the refusal of that prince to conform to the 
Papal decree, the thunders of the Vatican were hurled 
against him, — his states were declared forfeited to the 
Church, 



APPENDIX, 



149 



From this period until the death of Philip IV., an 
annual tribute of seven thousand dollars was paid to 
Rome, and the investiture v^as granted by the Pope 
at every new accession to the throne ; and during the 
minority of the son of Phihp, Alexander VII. (citing 
the example of Innocent III., in his discussion with 
the guardians of Frederic 11.,) laid claim to the regency 
of the kingdom. 

In 1671, the Viceroy, Don Peter, of Arragon, went 
to Home by order of the Queen-mother and Regent of 
Spain, to do homage to Clement X., in the name of 
Charles II. At the conclusion of the wars, which 
were kindled at the death of this sovereign, and which 
originated in the disputes occasioned by his succession, 
the Emperor, Charles II., in 1722, obtained from In- 
nocent XIII. the investiture of the Two Sicilies, and 
Cardinal Althaun, his legate, took the oath of alle- 
giance in his name. In 1734, the Infant, Don Carlos, 
having conquered the kingdom of Naples, there arose 
a contest between him and the Emperor, which sliould 
be admitted to the privilege of paying the census to 
Rome. Pope Clement XII. at first refused the prof- 
fered homage from Don Carlos, but his arms having 
been triumphant, the Emperor was cast in the judg- 
ment of the Church, and the census and hackney were 
received from Don Carlos ; and, in 1738, he was in- 
vested with the sovereignty of the kingdom. During 
the reign of this prince the hackney continued to be 
presented ; and, at the accession of his son, Ferdi- 
nand IV., the same ceremony was observed till the 
year 1786, froip which time it has been discontinued. 



150 APPENDIX. 



From the Pope to the King of Naples'^. 

Real Maesta, 

Per quanto il sllenzio di V. M., clie non ha mai ri- 
sposto alia nostra lettera di 18 Ottobre decorso, e le 
aperte dichiarazioni di suoi ministri ci annunziassero, 
che nella ricorenza della Festivita di S. Pietro non sa- 
rebbe seguita la prestazione del censo, e della chinea 
dovuta a questa Santa Sede, pure confessiamo alia 
M. V. die non ci sembrava possibile clie cio accadesse. 

Noi non potevamo dimenticare le calde istanze che 
el fece V. M. medesima, da Palermo, con sua lettera fat- 
taci presentare del Duca di Gravina, per effettuare fin 
da quel anno la prestazione di detto censo e chinea; 
V. M. si ricordi quanto ci scrisse da quella citta^ e 
quello che e piu, si ricordi i voti che cola fece a Dio. 
Non perche sono cambiati i tempi della tribulazione, 
cambiano i doveri; anzi dal cambiamento de' tempi si 
deve prender motivo di essere grati alia miser icordia 
del Signore, e raddoppiare lo zelo nell' adempimento de' 
proprii obblighi. 

Nella citata nostra lettera le dicemmo con apos- 
tolica franchezza, che se V. M. fosse per mancare 
ai suoi giuramenti, noi non mancheremmo ai nostri. 11 
riflesso della pendente trattativa degli affari Ecclesias- 
tici, ed il desiderio di non attraversarne la conclusione, 
la quale e di tanta importanza per la religione, ed 
eccita cosi vivamente le nostre Apostoliche sollecitudini, 

* These letters were in the possession of a distinguished fo- 
reigner residing in Rome, ^\^ho is lately dead. 



APPENDIX. 151 

ci somministra un motivo per tranqulUizzare la nostra 
coscienza, e per trattenerci ancor questa volta dalla 
esecuzione di quanto avevamo dichiarato a V. M. Ma 
se per 1' anzidetto riflesso ci tratteniamo dal fare alcun 
passo, non vogliamo per6 avere il rimorso di non 
averle almeno parlato chiaramente. 

Maesta, noi siarno ormai sulP orlo dell sepolcro. 
Tremiamo al pensiero di dover fra breve comparire al 
giudizio di quel Dio, innanzi al quale dovra pure com- 
parire un giorno anche la M. V. L' inadem pimento 
delle obbligazioni contratte, i giuramenti violati non 
saranno scusati innanzi a Lui da mondani dispetti. Al 
letto della morte, e al lume di quella funesta candela, 
la M. V. vedra sotto altro aspetto quello che gli umani 
riguardi, ed i nemici del di Lei vero bene, le fanno ora 
vedere sotto un mentito colore. V. M. non creda che 
il nostro interesse ci faccia parlare cosi. Noi non sere- 
mo ne piu piccioli, ne piu grandi, se non ci si presenta, 
o se ci si presenta chinea. Ma V. M. rifletta se un 
giorno sara egualmente indifferente per Lei, il non aver- 
cela presentata. 

Se la nostra voce, che ^ pur la voce del Vicario, 
benche immeritevole, di Gesu Cristo, ha la disgrazia di 
non farsi ora sentire al cuore di V. M., se la sentira 
risuonare un giorno al tribunale di Dio. Questi senti- 
menti, che forse dispiaceranno alia M. V., sia pure per- 
suasa, che vengano dal cuore di un Padre che 1' ama, e 
che desidera la di Lei eterna salute. E con tutta 1' affe- 
zione dell' animo restiamo, dandole la Paterna Aposto- 
lica Benedizione, 

Pius P. P. VIL 

Dal Vaticano, 28 Giugno^ 1816. 



152 APPENDIX. 



Napoli, 26 Luglio, 1816. 
Al Santo Padre, 

La lettera che vostra Santita si e compiacluta scri- 
vermi in data dei 28 del mese scorso, mi ha riempito 
d' amarezza, e per I'accusa ch' Ella mi da di non aver 
fat to risposta alia sua di 18 di Ottobre dell' anno 
scorso, e per 1' oggetto su cui si versa. 

Faro prima 1' apologia dell' accusa, e di poi col piu 
profondo ossequio, che professero finche io viva al 
Vicario di Gesil Cristo ; ragioner6 liberamente colP 
immortale Pio VII. della chinea; dritto puramente 
politico e temporale, che la Chiesa di Roma crede fon- 
dato, e che il Re delle due Sicilie (anche messe da 
banda le discettazioni critiche e diplomatiche) non pu6, 
ne deva mandar buono, senza cedere la sua indepen- 
denza, dritto primitive e costitutivo d' ogni sovranita. 

Quanto all' apologia ; la lettera di V. S. sulla chinea, 
di 19 di Ottobre^ mi fu presentata dal Cardinal Carac- 
ciolo: e dopo averla ponderata colla piu scrupulosa 
attenzione, ci feci risposta il di 21 di Novembre, ed 
ordinai al mio ministro presso la S. V. di presentarcela 
in proprie mani; e siccome la S. V. mi diceva in quella 
lettera, di aver commesso al Cardinal Caracciolo di 
parlare anche sulla presentazione della chinea, ordinai 
ai miei plenipotenziarii di non ricusarsi a ragionarne 
nelle negoziazioni del concord ato, ed essi mi hanno poi 
riferito di averne tenuto ragionamento co' suoi plenipo- 
tenziarii ; cumulando questa pretenzione colla inconve- 
nienza per li due Stati limitrofi, del possesso di Bene- 
vento e Ponte-Corvo, per cosi fame oggetto d' inden- 



APPENDIX. 153 

nizzamento pecuniario come transazione di un dritto 
dubbio e contraverso;, unico mezzo con cui si sono 
sempre estinte le contese e tra privati, e tra sovrani 
limitroii, per evitarsi dagli uni i giudizii, e dagli altri 
lo stato raolesto di non buon vicinato; clie anzi, i miei 
plenipotenziarii mi rapportarono benanche, che di 
questo loro ragionamento ne fosse stato da' plenipoten- 
ziarii di V. S. messo per iscritto un memorandum che 
lettosi poi nella sessione susseguente, fu inviato alia 
vostra Segreteria di Stato, senza aversene piu risposta. 

Vede quindi V. S., che alia lettera non mancai di 
rispondere, e se, per caso fra le sae carte e stata dis- 
persa, non e mia colpa. Intanto, perche V. S. sia a 
giorno dei termini di quella mia risposta, le ne invio 
una copia, anche per giustificazione di un mancamenta 
inpresumible verso la persona della S.V., sacra pel 
carattere, e commendevolissiraa per le virtu che 1' ador 
nano. 

Vengo poi alia sua lettera di 28 del mese scorso. 
V. S. mi parla del censo, e della chinea ; di mie lettere 
scrittele da Palermo, e presentatele dal Duca di Gra- 
vina; de' miei voti fatti a Dio ; de' giuramenti prestati : 
deir inadempimento delle mie promesse. Mi chiama 
al giudizio di Dio ; mi ricorda quel sacro lume che si 
accende al letto dei moribondi, cui Iddio concede la 
grazia di esser vissuti, o di morire in seno della chiesa ; 
mi dice, inline, queste sacre e memorande parole: Se la 
nostra voce, che d pur la voce del Vicario, benche im- 
meritevole, di Gesu Cristo, ha la disgrazia ora di non 
farsi sentire al cuore di V. M., sela sentira risuonare 
un giorno al Tribunate di Dio, Mi riempii a questa 
lettura di sacro e santo orrore> e raccoltomi innanzi a 



154 APPENDIX. 

Dio, lo supplicai con maggior fervore di darmi lume e 
conoscenza dei miei doveri. E prima di ogni altro 
voUi ricordarmi^ se alcun voto avessi fatto nella mia 
dimora in Sicilia, e dietro scrupoloso scrutinio, non ne 
rinvenni alcun altro, die quello, sebbene non solenne, 
di eriggere a S. Francesco di Paola una chiesa, tostoc- 
che avessi ricuperato il mio regno di Napoli. 

Ne feci mai voto di prestar censo e cMnea, ne 
questo voto poteva cadermi in mente ; poich^ se la 
giustizia mi avesse obbligato a queste prestazioni, non 
era materia divoto ; che se poi non fossero dovute^ ma, 
dico anche meno, se alcun dubbio di dritto, o di fatto 
vi fosse concorso a prestarle, avrei mancato al mio 
dovere facendolo, conciosiacche avrei assoggettato il 
mio stato ed i miei sudditi al vincolo feudale, e ne sa- 
rebbe sorto V assurdo, a danno della Religione, che 
alcun facesse voto a Dio di mancare ai doveri del pro- 
prio stato : e quando, per vacillamento momentaneo di 
adeguato ragionamento, fossi io in questo errore ca- 
duto, non die V. S. che ha la pienezza de' poteri spiri- 
tuali, ma qualunque confessore mene avrebbe assoluto. 

La spaventevol minaccia di render conto a Dio mi ha 
condotto e richiamare ad esame la natura e 1' indole della 
questione, e, con que' lumi che e piaciuto a Dio di darmi, 
mi sono pienamente convinto dei seguenti ragionamenti, 
scevri d' investigazione di carte antiche, che ha dimo- 
strata in tutt' i tempi priva di fondamento legale questa 
pretensione della chiesa di Roma. 

Fuvvi un tempo che tutto prese in Europa la forma 
feudale. La catena de' signori e de* vassalli aveva tali 
e tanti anelli, che i Redi Francia, V Imperatore di Ger- 
mania, la stessa Chiesa, per una via risaliyano all* anello 



APPENDIX. 155 

superiore di signore, e per V altra discendevano a quello 
di vassallo. 

Era,insomma, lafeudalitail principio costitutivo della 
ragione pubblica; ogni terra, ognl stato, ogni persona, 
o si credeva signore, o si riputava vassallo : e talvolta 
per diverse possession!, Tuna, e ? altra quality, con mag- 
giori o minori gradi di signoria, o di soggezione feu- 
dale, lo stesso stato, o la stessa persona, rappresentava 
o soffriva. Questo stesso principio di feudalita fece 
anche nascere i feudi oblati, specie di volontaria servitu 
che era a quel tempi di sommi vantaggi largamente 
compensata. 

La chiesa poi, quanto salda ed invariabilenel dogma, 
e nelle disciplina inerente al dogma, saggia egualmente 
nelle cose temporali, per le sue possessioni e perli dritti 
temporali, ai tempi ed ai sistemi di ragion pubblica si e 
sempre conformata : onde, mentre I'lmpero Romano 
era Signore del mondo, per lo temporale fu suddita : 
sciolto r Impero Romano, divenne, per giustissimo 
titolo, Potenza politica ; prese ne' suoi stati le 
forme feudali, perche tutto allora era feudo ; la sua 
potenza temporale or si accrebbe, or si scem^ per trat- 
tali e convenzioni ; in somma, per quei modi pei quali 
le sovranita crescono e dicrescono. Effetto di queste 
politiclie e diplomatiche convenzioni si e il possesso de' 
suoi stati, sempre subordinato a quelle vicende impe- 
riose, che il sistema generale del secolo adatta ai governi. 
Infatti, il glorioso predecessore di V. S. non fu con 
solenne trattato obbligato a cedere le Legazione ? E la 
S. V. non ne ripete ora il possesso, con leggerissime dimi- 
nuzione, da una politica convenzione, che le potenze riu- 
nite in congresso aVienna han sanzionato per dar la pace 



]56 APPENDIX. 

al mondo ? Non vi e dunque d' invarlabile che il dogma, 
perchedaDiorivelato. Cio clie e temporale della chiesa 
si conforma al secolo ed alle circostanze. La feudality, 
Santo Padre, e finita in Europa. La Germania, che la, 
conservava piii d'appresso nella forma antica ; la Francia, 
la Polonia, V Italia, i Paesi Bassi, non sono piii feudi. 
L' Imperatore di Germania, i Re di Francia, hanno 
solennemente abdicate ogni dritto feudale ; 1' Italia, 
piena di feudi Imperiali, di giapiu non nericorda il nome. 
Sara dunque il solo regno dello due Sicilie che rimarr^ 
vassallo ? Sentira dopo il trattato di Vienna, principo, 
e fonte di tutte le attuali possessioni sovrane, parlaglisi 
di censo e di chinea ; mentre in quel trattato non legge, 
tra le possessioni nelle quali la Santa Sede e stata rein- 
tegrata, il dritto di Signoria sul regno di Napoli? Non 
avrebbe lo stesso assurdo se il Re di Francia si facesse 
ora a pretendere di esser Signore della Contea di Fian- 
dra, o che 1' Imperatore d' Austria i suoi titoli feudal! 
sulla Germania e sull' Italia rappresentasse ? 

Santo Padre, ne censo ne chinea, mi permetta che 
dica con r is petto profondo e filiale, non son materia per 
cui posso esser chiamato al giudizio di Dio; giudizio 
che temo infinitamente per i miei peccati, ne posso avere 
altra speranza di perdono che nel sangue preziosissimo 
di Gesii Cristo. Censo e chinea sono dritti politici che 
si acquistano e si perdano per trattati, per convenzione, 
per prescrizione ; in somma, per quel modi con cui i 
dominj si acquistano, e si perdano, sempre sotto la 
legge generale delle nazioni, di cui dritti sono i sovrani, 
a nome di Dio, i sacri depositary . Sar6 dunque sempre 
I'ubbidientissimo Figlio della Santa Sede ; ascoltero le 
sue voci con profonda sommessione, quante volte mi 



APPENDIX. 157 

ricorder^ i miei doveri spiritual! : ma in materia di tem- 
porality, valutero i drittidel Sovrano di Roma con quei 
principii d' indipendenza che si convengano al mio 
regno. Soggiiigner6 un altra riflessione. Questa dis- 
tinzione del Sovrano di Roma dal Sommo Pontefice h 
tanto sacra e santa, die io non me la son presa in nulla 
col. Pontefice, quando il Segretario di Stato del Sovrano 
di Roma scrisse a Buonaparte, che, se gli stati della 
Chiesa fossero garantiti, non si avrebbe avuto dubbio di 
riconoscere Giuseppe Buonaparte come Re delle due 
Sicilie. Ripeto ; il Pontefice era Sovrano di uno 
stato, e far doveva ogni specie di sacrificio per 
garantire i suoi sudditi dalla nemica aggressione, e 
per conservarli nello stato di pace ; e forse puc> 
anche sostenersi, che politicamente governandosi, il 
vostro Segretario di Stato saggiamente si condusse ; e 
quindi, se Buonaparte, la garanzia avesse accordata 
V. S., nella sua qualitd di Vicario di Gesti Cristo, 
avrebbe pianto a calde lagrime sa questa vicenda 
politica di mia perdizione, ma come Sovrano di Roma, 
r avrebbe sanzionata per la legge irresistibile della 
forza, e per I'altra non men santissima, d' impedire lo 
spargimento del sangue, ed il cambiamento del go- 
verno dei suoi sudditi. Di grazia, sia V. S., nella 
pienezza delle sue vedute, meco d' accordo a considerare 
se posso in coscienza lasciar sussistere, a danno dei miei 
successori, questo addentellato di censo e di chinea, 
germe del funesto pericolo della perdita della loro 
sovranita, nella possibility di circostanze imperiosissime, 
in cui coir andar del tempo potrebbe trovarsi la politica 
degli Stati Ponteficii. V. S., che fra le tante doti che 
r adornanojha specialmente quella della giustizia,vegga 



158 APPENDIX. 

se possa io rimuovermi dal fermlssimo proponimento di 
non mai acconsentire a prestazione di censo e di chinea ; 
mentre mi dichiaro pronto, per lo bene della pace, 
quando questa quistione si cumuli con Benevento e 
Ponte-Corvo, a convenire di un compenso pecuniario, 
secondo il m.emorandum die gli e stato rassegnato da' 
suoi plenipotenziarii ; unico mezzo da terminare le 
nostre vertenze temporali ; e mi permetta V. S. di 
dirlo, mezzo conforme ai principii delle stesse leggi 
ecclesiastiche. Ricorder(\ a V. S. che secondo i principii 
canonici, non solo si transiggono i dritti dubbj, ma si 
puo benanclie, per causa utile alia cliiesa, alienare il 
fondo. La Sante Sede ha delle obbligazioni pecu- 
niarie, e per lo monte Napoleone, e per lo indennizza- 
mento del Principe Beauharnais ; una certa somma 
r allevierebbe dalle angustie di aggravare i suoi sudditi. 
Ponte-Corvo e Benevento non recano alcun vantaggio 
alle vostre possessioni temporali ; sono al contrario di 
danno gravissimo al mio regno. 

L' utile dunque sarebbe comune. Si costituirebbe 
un ottimo vicinato ; I'uno e Taltro sovrano diverrebbero, 
per reciproco interesse, i piu fedeli alleati, per respin- 
gere ogni nemica aggressione. La pace regnerebbe tra 
nostri sudditi, e la Chiesa si disfarebbe di un possedi- 
mento, a se non giovevole, ed infinitamente dannoso ad 
un vicino, che rispetterebbe V. S. come il donatore 
della quiete del suo stato. Meritavo io, Santo Padre, 
con queste sante e pie intenzioni, di metter censo e 
chinea, quando accoppiate fossero collo sradicamento 
di ogni discordia di vicinato, anclie a calcolo di com- 
penso pecuniario ; non ostante 1' ultimo dritto pubblico 
fissato dal Congresso di Vienna ? Meritavo io, piacemi 



APPENDIX. 159 

di ripeterlo, d'esser minacciato, colla veneranda lettera 
di V. S. del giudizio di Dio ? Comunque io sia piena- 
mente en calma, ed abbia pacatissima coscienza, spia- 
cendomi sempre nel piu vivo del cuore, di contradire, 
nella piu piccola parte, a tutto cio che da V. S. mi 
viene insinuato, col piu profondo filiale rispetto la 
supplico a prendere questa mia replica in dovuta con- 
siderazione, et aggiugnere alle tante grazie, delle 
quali tutto giorno mi colma, quella di tenermi sempre 
presente nelle sue sante orazioni, per implorarmi da 
Dio la grazia di governare i miei sudditi secondo lo 
spirito della sua Divina parola ; e mi rimango, chieden- 
dole la Santa Apostolica Benedizione, 

{Firmatd) Ferdinando. 



(Translation.) 



Sire, 

Notwithstanding tliat the silence of your Ma- 
jesty, who never replied to our letter of the 18th of 
October last, and the open declaration of your ministers 
had announced to us, that, on the anniversary of the Fes- 
tivity of St. Peter, the presentation of the census and 
hackney, due to this Holy See, would be withheld, yet 
we confess to your Majesty, that such a proceeding 
appeared to us impossible. 

We cannot forget how warmly we were urged by 
your Majesty himself, from Palermo, in the letter you 
caused to be presented to us from yourself, by the 
Duke of Gravina, to effectuate in that year the said 



160 APPENDIX, 

presentation of the subsidy and steed. May your 
Majesty recollect what you wrote to us from that 
city, and what is more, may you remember the vows 
you there made to God ! 

Not because the times of tribulation are changed, 
can our duties change ; rather should we find in the 
change of the times reasons to be grateful for the 
mercies of the Lord, and to redouble our zeal in the 
discharge of our obligations. In the letter alluded to, 
we tell your Majesty, with apostolic frankness, that 
if you should intend to fail in the performance of 
your oaths, we shall not fail in ours. The recollection 
of the pending treaty of ecclesiastical affairs, and the 
desire of not interrupting its conclusion, which is so 
important to religion, and which so strongly excites our 
apostolic solicitude, furnish us with a notice to tranquil- 
lize our conscience, and to withhold us this once more 
from the execution of what we had already declared 
to your Majesty. But if, from the above-mentioned 
considerations, we abstain from taking any steps, we 
will not, however, incur the reproach of not having 
spoken openly to your Majesty. Sire, we are now 
upon the edge of the tomb ; we tremble at the idea 
that we must soon appear at the tribunal of that God, 
before whom also your Majesty must one day appear. 
The non-execution of duties incurred, the violation of 
oaths, will not be excusable before Him for worldly 
considerations. Upon the bed of death, and by the 
light of that fatal candle, your Majesty will see with 
different eyes, that which human interests and the 
enemies of your real welfare now show you under 
false colours. Your Majesty cannot think that our 



APPENDIX. 161 

interest makes us speak thus. We shall be neither 
greater nor less, if the hackney is or is not offered to 
us. But may your Majesty reflect, whether it will 
one day be equally indifferent to you, the not having 
presented it to us. Should our voice, which, although 
unworthy, is still the voice of the Vicar of Jesus 
Christ, have the misfortune not to find its way now 
to the heart of your Majesty, you will hear it resound 
one day at the tribunal of God. May your Majesty 
be convinced that these sentiments, which may perhaps 
displease you, come from the heart of a father who 
loves you, and who desires your eternal salvation, and 
with all the affection of the soul, we remain, giving 
you the paternal apostolic benediction, 

Pius P. P. VII. 
From the Vatican, 28th June, 1816. 



Naples, 2^th July, 1816. 
To THE Holy Father, 

The letter, which your Holiness vouchsafed to 
write to me on the 28th of last month, has deeply grieved 
me, both by the reproach you therein make to me, for 
not having answered your letter of the 18th October last 
year, and by the subject on which you write. 

First, I will excuse myself from the reproach, and 
then with the most profound respect, which I shall 
profess as long as I live, towards the Vicar of Jesus 
Christ, I will openly discuss with the immortal Pius 
VII. the subject of the steed ; a right purely political 



162 APPENDIX. 

and temporal^ which the Church of Rome believes to 
be founded, and which the King of the Two Sicilies 
(even putting aside critical, and diplomatical disputes) 
cannot and ought not to make good, without injuring 
his independence, the first and essential right of every 
sovereignty. 

With regard to the excuse ; your Holiness's letter, 
respecting the steed, of the 19th October, was delivered 
to me by the Cardinal Caracciolo ; and after having 
considered it with the most scrupulous attention, I re- 
plied to it on the 21st of November, and I ordered my 
minister accredited to your Holiness, to deliver my 
reply into your own hands ; and, as your Holiness in 
that letter had informed me, that you had commissioned 
Cardinal Caracciolo to speak also upon the presentation 
of the steed, I ordered my plenipotentiaries not to re- 
fuse to discuss this subject in the negotiations of the 
Concordat ; and they afterwards informed me that they 
had debated upon it with your plenipotentiaries, uniting 
this pretension with the inconvenience for the two bor- 
dering States, of the possession of Benevento and Ponte- 
corvo ; thus to make it an object of jjecuniary indem- 
nification, as treating of a doubtful and disputable 
right ; the only means by which contests have ever been 
decided between neighbouring Sovereigns or indivi- 
duals; on one side to avoid litigation, and on the other 
the annoyance of bad neighbourhood. My plenipoten- 
tiaries even informed me moreover, that your plenipo- 
tentiaries made a memorandum in writing of this dis- 
cussion, which was read at the ensuing sitting, and then 
sent to your Secretary of State, without any further 
answer having been made to it. Your Holiness will 



APPENDIX. 163 

perceive, therefore, that I neglected not to answer j^our 
letter, and if amongst your papers, my answer was lost, 
it is not my fault. In the mean time, that your Holi" 
ness may be aware of the terms in which I wrote my 
replj^ I send you a copy thereof, and also as a justifica- 
tion of an inconceivable neglect towards your Holiness, 
equally sacred from his character, and venerable from 
the virtues that adorn him. 

I now come to your Holiness's letter of the 28th 
ultimo. Your Holiness therein speaks of the subsidy 
and steed ; of my letters written to you from Palermo, 
and delivered bv the Duke of Gravina ; of the vows I 
made to God ; of the oaths taken ; of the non-perform- 
ance of my promises. Your Holiness summons me 
to the tribunal of God ; reminds me of the sacred light 
which burns by the couch of the dying, to whom God 
grants the boon of having lived, and of dying in the 
bosom of the church ; and at last you address to me 
these holy and memorable words, " Should our voice 
'* iDfiich, although unioorthy^is still the voice of the Vicar 
"^ of Jesus Christ, have the misfortune not to find its way 
'* now to the heart of your Majesty, you will hear it re- 
** sound one day at the Tribunal of God.'' — On read- 
ing these words I was filled with holy awe, and hum- 
bling myself before God, I besought him with the 
greatest fervour, to enlighten me with a knov/ledp-e of 
my duties, and above all I desired to recall to mv re- 
membrance, if I had made any vow during my residence 
in Sicily ; and after the most scrupulous examination, 
I could not find that I had made any, excepting that 
(which was not a solemn vow) of erecting a church to 
St. Francesco di Paola, as soon as I should have re- 



164 APPENDIX. 

covered my kingdom of Naples. I never vowed to 
offer a subsidy and steed, nor could, such a vow ever 
enter into my mind; because, if justice had obliged me 
to this homage, it could not be matter of a vow ; if, on 
the other hand, it was not owing, or even, I go further, 
if there existed any doubt of right as to the offering, 
I should have failed in my duty had I paid it, as I 
should thereby have subjected my state and my sub- 
jects to the feudal bond ; and from thence w^ould have 
arisen the absurdity, to the detriment of religion, of a 
person vowing to God to neglect his duty to his own 
country. If, from momentary hesitation in a well- 
poised judgment, 1 had fallen into such an error, I say 
that not only your Holiness, who is all-powerful in 
spiritual a^ffairs, but any confessor would have ab- 
solved me from it. The tremendous menace of render- 
ing; account to God has led me to examine and inves- 
tigate the nature and character of the question, and 
with the understanding which it has pleased God to 
give me, I have firmly convinced myself of the sound- 
ness of the following statement, independently of the 
investigation of ancient writings, which have at all times 
demonstrated this pretension of the Church of Rome 
to be void of all legal foundation. 

There was a time when everything in Europe as- 
sumed the feudal forms. The chain of nobles and of 
vassals had so m.any links, that the Kings of France, the 
Emperor of Germany, the Church itself, on one side 
rose to the highest link of lords, and on the other de- 
scended to that of vassals. In fact, feudality was the 
constitutive principle of political economy ; every coun- 
try, every state, every person, either considered himself 



APPENDIX. 165 

as lord or vassal ; and sometimes from different pos- 
sessions, the same state, or the same person, repre- 
sented and endured in greater or less degrees, the two 
qualities of lordship and feudal subjection. This same 
principle of feudality gave rise to the feuds oblate, a 
species of voluntary servitude, which in those times 
was amply compensated by great advantages. The 
Church, ever firm and invariable in the dogma, and in 
the discipline inherent to the dogma, equally wise in 
temporal affairs, constantly conformed to the times 
and systems of political economy with regard to her 
possessions and temporal rights: hence, while the 
Roman Empire governed the world, she was in tem- 
poral matters a subject ; when the Roman Empire 
was dissolved, she became by just title a political 
Power. She adopted the feudal system in her states, 
because everything was then feudal ; her temporal 
power increased and diminished by treaties and con- 
ventions ; in short, by those different means, by which 
sovereignties rise and fall. It is in consequence of 
those political and diplomatical conventions that she 
has obtained the possession of her states, always subject 
to those necessary vicissitudes which the general system 
of the age brings upon governments. 

In fact, was not the glorious predecessor of your 
Holiness obliged, by a solemn treaty, to cede the Lega- 
tions ? and has not your Holiness regained, with a slight 
diminution, their possession by a political convention 
which the powers assembled in congress at Vienna 
sanctioned, in order to give peace to the world ? There 
is, therefore, nothing invariable, save the dogma, be- 
cause revealed by God. In temporal affairs the church 



166 APPENDIX 

conforms to the times and to circumstances. Feudality, 
Holy Father, is over in Europe. Germany, which re- 
t ained it the nearest to its ancient form ; France, Po- 
land, Italy, the Low Countries, are no longer iiefs, 
have no longer vassals. The Emperor of Germany, the 
kings of France, have solemnly abdicated every feudal 
right ; Italy, full of imperial fiefs, already remembers 
not their name. Is the kingdom of the Two Sicilies, 
then, alone to remain a vassal ? Is it, after the treaty of 
Vienna, the foundation and principle of every existing 
sovereign possession, to hear speak of homage and a 
steed ; whilst in that treaty no mention is made amongst 
those possessions in w^hich the Holy See has been rein- 
stated, of the right of lordship over the kingdom of 
Naples .? Would it not be equally absurd if the king 
of France were now to pretend to be lord of the county 
of Flanders, or if the emperor of Austria should at- 
tempt to assume his feudal rights in Germany and 
Italy ? 

Holy Father, permit me, with profound and filial re- 
spect, to say that neither the offering of homage, nor 
of a steed, are subjects for which I can be called to the 
tribunal of God ; a tribunal which I greatly fear on 
account of my sins, nor can I hope for pardon excejiting 
in the precious blood of Jesus Christ. Homage and the 
presentation of a steed are political rights which are 
acquired and lost by treaties, by conventions, by pre- 
scription ; m short, by those means by which dominions 
are acquired and lost, always under the general law of 
nations, of whose rights sovereigns are, in the name of 
God, the sacred depositaries. I shall, therefore, ever 
be the most obedient son of the Holy See ; I shall hsten 



APPENDIX. 167 

to its voice witK profound submission, whensoever it 
calls me to ray spiritual duties : but in temporal affairs, 
I shall weigh the rights of the Sovereign of Rome v/ith 
those principles of independence which are adapted to 
my kingdom. I will add another reflection. This dis- 
tinction between the Sovereign of Rome and the High 
Pontiff is so sacred and holy, that I took no umbrage 
at the pontiff, when the secretary of state of the sove- 
reign of Rome wrote to Buonaparte, that, if the papal 
states were guarantied, there would be no difficulty in 
recognising Joseph Buonaparte King of the Two Sici- 
lies. I repeat it ; the Pontiff was sovereign of a state, 
and it was his duty to make every species of sacrifice to 
save her subjects from the aggression of the enemy, 
and to maintain them in a state of peace ; and perhaps 
it may be even granted, that, in^a political sense, your 
secretary of state acted wisely ; hence, if Buonaparte 
had given the guaranty, your holiness, in your cha- 
racter of Vicar of Jesus Christ, would have wept over 
the political vicissitudes causing my perdition ; but, as 
sovereign of Rome, would have sanctioned it, impelled 
by the irresistible law of force, and the no less sacred 
obligation of preventing bloodshed, and the changing 
of the government of your subjects. 

I entreat your Holiness, in the plenitude of your judg- 
ment, to agree with me in considering whether I can, 
in conscience, allow the existence, to the injury of my 
successors, of this touchstone of census, and the offering 
of the hackney, which, supposing that in the course of 
time, the policy of the Papal States should find itself in 
critical circumstances, might engender the fatal risk of 
the loss of their sovereiP'ntv, 



168 APPENDIX. 

Your Holiness, who, amongst the various qualities 
that adorn you, so eminently possesses that of justice, 
will see if I can waver in my firm determination, never 
to consent to the offering of homage and a steed ; whilst 
I declare myself ready, for the sake of peace, whenever 
this question shall be amalgamated with that of Bene- 
vento and Pontecorvo, to agree to a pecuniary com- 
pensation, according to the memorandum delivered to 
you by your plenipotentiaries ; the only means of ter- 
minating our temporal disagreement ; and allow me to 
say, means which are in conformity to the principles of 
the ecclesiastical laws. 

I will remind your Holiness, that, according to the 
canonical principles, not only are doubtful rights to be 
discussed, but, if useful to the Church, the foundation of 
them may be set aside. The Holy See has pecuniary 
obligations, both on the Mont Napoleon, and for the 
indemnisation of Prince Beauharnais ; a certain sum 
would relieve the Papal government from the affliction 
of oppressing its subjects. Benevento and Ponte- 
corvo are of no advantage to your temporal possessions ; 
they are, on the contrary, of the greatest injury to my 
kingdom : the benefit, therefore, would be mutual. An 
excellent neighbourhood would be formed ; both so- 
vereigns would become, for their reciprocal interests, 
the most faithful allies, to resist every inimical aggres- 
sion. Peace would reign amongst our subjects, and 
the Church would be relieved from a possession useless 
to her, and extremely injurious to a neighbour, who 
would look up to your Holiness as the giver of tran- 
quillity to his country. 

Have I deserved, Holy Father, with these holy 



APPENDIX. 169 

and pious intentions of submitting the census and the 
hackney (since they would be accompanied with the era- 
dication of all discord between neighbours) even to a 
calculation of pecuniary compensation ; notwithstanding 
the last public right fixed by the congress of Vienna ? 
Have I deserved, I repeat it with satisfaction, to be me- 
naced in the venerated letter of your holiness, with the 
judgment of God ? Although I am perfectly calm, and 
have a pure conscience, yet as it must ever cause me 
heartfelt grief to oppose, in the slightest degree, what- 
ever your Holiness suggests to me, I entreat you, with 
the most profound and filial respect, to give due con- 
sideration to this answer of mine, and to add to the 
many favours which you daily heap upon me, that of 
remembering me in your holy prayers, to implore for 
me, from God, the grace to govern my subjects ac- 
cording to the spirit of his divine word ; and I remain, 
beseeching the holy apostolic benediction, 

{Signed) Ferdinand. 



FINIS. 



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19. 

HISTORICAL MEMOIRS of the ENGLISH, IRISH, and 

SCOTCH CATHOLICS. By CHARLES BUTLER, Esq. Third Edition, 
4 vols. Bvo. 21. Ss. 

20. 
The EVIDENCE on the STATE of IP..ELAND, given before the 

Com-.iiittees of the Houses of Lords and Commons, by the Irish Catholic Bishops, 
Mr. O'CoNNELL, and other Witnesses. Bvo. \2s. 

21. 
CORRESPONDENCE between POPE PIUS VII., and the 

late KING of NAPLES i together with an APPENDIX of DOCUMENTS, in a 
LETFER to the Right Honourable the SPEAKER of the HOUSE of COMMONS. 



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